


You Want Me to Hurt You

by lexus_grey



Category: Legend of the Seeker
Genre: Ageplay, BDSM, F/F, Richard is dead :(, Spanking, Torture, Violence, mord-sith violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-31
Updated: 2015-05-31
Packaged: 2018-04-02 03:37:03
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 29,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4044400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lexus_grey/pseuds/lexus_grey
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Denna has killed Richard ( :( ) and enslaved Kahlan. Their relationship evolves over time. The character death warning is for Richard and Darken Rahl, not for either of the ladies. There is Mord-Sith violence in here, but even that evolves with their relationship. It's a very dark story most of the way through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Want Me to Hurt You

Denna/Kahlan, "You want me to hurt you."

"You want me to hurt you."

Kahlan held her head high. Even chained in the dungeons at Tamarang, naked, with a Rada'Han around her neck, she was still the Mother Confessor. "I don't care what you do," she said coldly, her Confessor's mask in place.

Then Denna touched her with the Agiel.

She screamed. Despite her resolve to stay indifferent, she screamed until her voice was hoarse. She had never felt pain of this kind, or magnitude, and after only a minute, she was ready to faint. The agony began at the point of contact of the Agiel to her skin, but didn't stop there. It vibrated into her bones, radiating outward in waves of nauseating torment. After only another minute, possibly two, she jerked her head to the side and threw up.

Denna took her captive's chin between her gloved thumb and forefinger, a thrill snaking up her spine. "Oh, Kahlan," she lamented, shaking her head with a click of her tongue. "So disappointing. The authority of the Midlands, and you can't even stomach five minutes with my Agiel. Richard was much... more resilient than you."

"Don't you talk about him!" Kahlan screamed in a rage, the Rada'Han preventing her from going Con Dar all over again at the thought of his fate.

Denna smiled, released Kahlan's chin and patted her cheek. "Don't worry, love. I'll teach you to stomach the pain."

\--

Kahlan wasn't sure how long she had been chained here, only that she hurt. Everywhere. Not a part of her body was free of throbbing, relentless pain. She hung limply in her shackles, congealed blood making every movement sticky and uncomfortable in addition to the pain. She tried not to move. Her head was bowed, chin resting almost on her collarbone, her hair falling over her chest in dark, matted messes. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was surprised Denna hadn't cut it.

"You're wondering why I haven't cut your hair."

Denna's voice came out of the shadows, followed by footsteps carrying her closer.

Kahlan didn't answer.

"And now you're wondering how I knew that."

"I don't," Kahlan rasped, her voice rough and barely audible, "I don't care."

Denna strode forward and drove her Agiel into Kahlan's gut, making the Confessor cry out. "You want me to hurt you. You must. That is why you answer with insolence. I have told you to call me Mistress, or Mistress Denna."

"Any Mistress of mine would earn her title," Kahlan panted, gasping for breath.

"And any slave of mine would earn hers," Denna said calmly, though her eyes darkened and became unfocused.

\--

Time dragged on, and all Kahlan knew was the pain of the Agiel. It could have been days, or weeks, for all she knew. She was shown not a single kindness; even when she was given food to eat, Denna laid a boot to the side of her face, pressing her cheek to the cold stone floor as she force-fed her with a wooden spoon.

This time, when she had finished eating, Denna spanked her with the spoon.

Humiliated, she pressed her face to one arm as she cried.

Because she cried, Denna spanked her with the wooden spoon after every meal from then on. She cried every time, not because it hurt, but because it was a child's punishment, and since she had grown to be able to tolerate the Agiel with some degree of dignity, she felt this was an insult.

Finally she could stand it no longer. "Use your Agiel!" she demanded as she finished a bowl of porridge.

Denna raised an eyebrow, a slow smirk spreading across her features. "Oh?" She had long-since given up on attempting to get Kahlan to call her 'Mistress'. No matter how hard she beat the Confessor, those words would not come. It was a waste of her talents, and made her feel ineffectual, so she had stopped trying.

"I can take the Agiel. Use it!" Denna stroked her hair in response, and Kahlan gasped. It was the first gentle touch she had received since her capture, and she was torn between aching for more and being desperate to make it stop.

Denna admitted, only to herself, that she was impressed. Begging for an Agiel was foolish, but showed strength at the same time. The Mother Confessor did not want to be punished like a child, she wished to be punished like the grown woman she was. Pulling her boot from Kahlan's face, she stepped back and used it to nudge the Confessor onto her back. One hand closed around the Agiel's handle, and she kicked Kahlan's ankles apart, standing between them. "Because I am feeling generous today, I shall allow you a choice. A spanking, with the spoon, or my Agiel here." She pressed the toe of her boot lightly between Kahlan's legs.

Kahlan gasped, growing wet at the simple stimulation she had been long-denied. She had not expected an offer of choice, let alone a choice that would be so difficult for her to make. She still hated that Agiel, despite being able to tolerate it without screaming now, but she feared it would be far worse to have it touch her inside. As humiliating as it was, she would have to choose the spanking. She turned her face away to answer. "The spoon," she whispered, tears stinging her eyes.

Denna laughed, and released the Agiel's handle, flexing her fingers. She walked with measured strides to one side of the room and returned with a chair. She picked up Kahlan's breakfast spoon and sat in the chair with a smirk. "Drape yourself across my lap, child."

"It's Kahlan," Kahlan ground out through clenched teeth, slowly rising to her feet to obey.

"You will be Kahlan when I am Mistress Denna, and not before. Now, do as you're told, child, lest I lose my patience with you and decide to revoke your choice."

Kahlan moved faster, bending across Denna's lap, bracing her hands on the floor. The impact sent ripples of pain through her hips and stomach, igniting both old and fresh wounds.

Denna lay the spoon on the chair beside her and wrapped an arm around Kahlan's waist, tugging her closer. "You have lovely bruises, child," she purred, trailing a finger up and down Kahlan's thighs and over her buttocks. "But, however lovely, I'm sure they are quite painful, and I had better spank you with my hand instead."

"No!" Kahlan cried out in a panic, starting to squirm in an attempt to free herself.

"Yes," Denna said softly, bringing her palm down with a mild smack to the Confessor's bottom.

Kahlan forced out a strangled breath, renewing her struggles, but Denna had her pinned, and there was no escape. Tears filled her eyes and leaked down her cheeks as she hung her head in shame. Denna wasn't even spanking hard. This made her feel more debased than a severe whipping would have. "Please," she begged. "Use the spoon. Or your whip. I know you have one, I've seen it. Please..."

"A child cannot handle a whip," Denna said, her voice quiet, almost sweet, as she brought her hand down again, with barely an impact.

"I'm not a child!" Kahlan sobbed. "I am a woman! Please, M--" She stopped short, reassessing the situation, trying to figure out why she had almost used a word she would rather die than attribute to Denna. She realized it was because her thighs were dripping wet. Her body was enjoying the punishment. A harsh betrayal.

Denna froze, her breath a wisp, her hand resting on Kahlan's bottom, eyes wide with hunger. "What did you say, child?" She rubbed her hand back and forth, delighting in the noise of surprise from the Confessor, and the way her backside pressed into the touch. At the shift in Kahlan's position, the stark smell of arousal reached her nostrils, and they flared with excitement of her own. "Oh, someone is enjoying her spanking," she crooned.

Flushed with shame, Kahlan merely sobbed over Denna's lap. She wanted gentle. And she hated that she wanted gentle, because she knew that as soon as Denna found out she wanted it, it would be taken away. "I can't even feel it," she snapped.

"Maybe not here," Denna said, rubbing her backside again, then trailing a finger between the cheeks and lower, until she reached the abundant, slick heat begging to be played with. "But you feel it here, don't you child?" Perhaps she had been going about things all wrong from the start. Perhaps she should have taken into consideration the Confessor's intrinsic need for human contact, and exploited that much sooner. Perhaps she could draw the words she sought from Kahlan's lips by giving her what she'd always longed for and could never have. Then the Confessor would truly be broken.

"I feel nothing," Kahlan lied, though she knew that Denna knew. When that finger crawled through her wetness again, though, she couldn't stop a needy moan from escaping.

"If you want me to continue, you'll have to tell the truth," Denna scolded, stilling her finger.

"I feel it!" Kahlan gasped immediately, despite the shame coloring her cheeks.

"You feel what? Be specific, child, you only get one chance to answer."

"I barely felt the spanking on my bottom, but I felt it powerfully between my legs," Kahlan managed to force herself to whisper.

"There, now was that so hard?" Denna asked, her voice sugary and full of empty promises. "You were never able to be intimate with Richard, because of your power."

"Don't talk about him!" Kahlan screamed, going rigid, but when Denna withdrew her finger, she went limp again and rushed to apologize. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she breathed.

"If you raise your voice to your Mistress again, you will find yourself without contact for a week," Denna said harshly, then softened her voice as she returned her finger to Kahlan's folds and began stroking. "The only pleasure you have ever been able to safely receive has been at your own hand."

It seemed to be a question even though it was phrased without inflection, so Kahlan answered. "Yes."

"But you have always longed for the touch of another. For another to hold you and kiss you and dip gentle fingers between your legs, and make you come," Denna whispered, her breath dancing over the back of Kahlan's neck.

Kahlan shivered. That, also, seemed to be intended as a question. "Yes," she panted softly.

"Now, you wear a Rada'Han. You could have any man you wished. There are plenty in this castle who would be more than eager to oblige your desires. Would you care to lay with one of them?"

For some reason, the idea made Kahlan want to retch. "I thought you were going to..." She let her words trail off, swallowing hard. Upon closer inspection, she understood the psychology of it perfectly. Denna had given her nothing but pain as long as they had been together. If she was to receive pleasure, she wanted it only at Denna's hand. She wanted pleasure from the one who had given her pain, and from no other.

"Me?" Denna asked innocently, pretending to be surprised. "Why would you want me when you could have anyone you wished?" She swirled her fingertip through Kahlan's folds again, down to circle her entrance without penetrating the Confessor.

Kahlan whimpered, biting her lip to keep from snapping out an answer. "You know why," she finally said without malice in her voice.

Denna grinned, dropped her head to kiss Kahlan's left shoulder blade as she smoothly slid one finger into her. The moan she was rewarded with made every nerve ending in her body tingle with expectation. "Does that feel good?" she purred, her words silky and decadent, laced with a conditional promise to give her more, if only she would respond in the appropriate manner.

"Yes," Kahlan moaned again, allowing her thighs to part slightly to accommodate Denna's hand.

"How nice for you," Denna said, her words now dripping with poison. "I think we'll go back to the Agiel. Get up."

"Mistress, please!" Kahlan begged, the appellation leaving her mouth before she even had time to think.

Denna groaned, dropping her head again and biting fiercely into the Confessor's right shoulder as she pushed into her with a second finger. "There," she said placatingly when she removed her teeth from Kahlan's flesh. "That's what your Mistress wanted to hear." She moved her lips to the Confessor's ear. "Good girl, Kahlan. You have pleased me. I will allow you to remain across my lap until I have made you come, at least three times."

Now that she'd said it once, her resistance to the title was broken, and since it pleased Denna so much, she said it again, shuddering at the feeling of being so filled. She had only ever used one finger on herself. "Thank you, Mistress," she said in gratitude.

Denna let her thumb travel between Kahlan's cheeks to the tighter hole there. "I was trained with an Agiel here," she said idly. "I cannot come without it. Perhaps I will train you the same way. But not today." She withdrew the touch, to Kahlan's obvious relief, and smiled wistfully.

Caught up in nostalgia, Denna was vaguely aware of what she was saying.

"You will join me at the table for dinner tonight," she declared. "It has been far too long since I dined with anyone. Queen Milena annoys me, and that brat of a daughter she has makes me want to choke on my own food."

Kahlan had no idea why Denna was telling her any of this, and did her best just to concentrate on the physical feelings being invoked by gentle fingers thrusting into her. Denna was skilled, incredibly skilled, and very shortly Kahlan felt the build-up of impending release, her magic coiling tightly even though it couldn't be expended.

Lost in thought, Denna hadn't even realized how close she'd brought Kahlan to orgasm, and when she did, she pressed her free hand between their bodies to pinch the Confessor's throbbing clit, sending her captive into paroxysms of release.

Kahlan mewled as the pleasure rocked through her, such a welcome, treasured sensation after all the pain, and as she finally relaxed over Denna's lap, she wrapped her arms around her captor's leg and pressed her cheek against the smooth red leather there. "Thank you, Mistress," she whispered.

Slightly surprised that the title remained after Kahlan had gotten what she wanted, Denna absently stroked her sweaty hair and murmured quietly, things that made no sense. Finally, she stopped petting Kahlan and sighed. "Are you ready for more?"

Kahlan thought that Denna sounded weary, and somehow sad. And for some reason, that bothered her. She kissed the leather in front of her mouth and shook her head. "No, Mistress. You have given me such pleasure and I can feel how tired I have made you, with how hard you have worked to train me. Would you allow us to bathe instead? I do not wish to be selfish."

"You presume to question my stamina?" Denna suddenly thundered, picking up the wooden spoon at her side and bringing it down fiercely on Kahlan's upturned backside.

"Mistress, no!" Kahlan gasped, her eyes flying wide, face pressing into Denna's leg. "That's not what I meant!"

Denna was furious, at herself for being temporarily soft, though, not with Kahlan. She beat Kahlan with the wooden implement until it snapped in half, and then she used her hand.

Kahlan was soon sobbing like a child, this pain far worse than any the Agiel could ever give her. "Mistress please, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she bawled, unable to understand how they had gone from gentle touches to this.

"You're sorry?" Denna mocked, hitting her harder, over bruises and splinters from the spoon. With an unearthly howl of rage, she shoved Kahlan off her lap and stood, turning, slamming her leather-clad fist into the support beam behind her chair. "Fine!" she screamed. "Draw us a fucking bath!"

Kahlan trembled and curled into a ball as she hit the floor, but at Denna's unhinged instructions, she forced herself up and fled to the washroom, unable to stop crying as she heated water for a bath and filled the basin.

Denna took her glove off with her teeth and inspected her broken, bloody knuckles. The pain radiating through her hand and wrist and up her arm gave her some sanity, something to focus on besides the tumultous feelings raging through her. Confusing, unwanted feelings that made no sense and tore her mind apart. "Stop crying!" she yelled into the washroom as she stripped herself of her leathers one-handed. By the time she was finished, the water was cold, and she had Kahlan drain the basin and refill it while she watched.

Kahlan was confused and scared and desperate to do the right thing, and she hurried to refill the basin with hot water, keeping her eyes away from Denna as much as possible, even though she could feel Denna's eyes burning holes in her skin.

"Get in," Denna barked.

Kahlan obeyed without hesitation. "Yes, Mistress," she whispered, her voice shaking. Tears stung her eyes again as she sank into the water and had to sit on her abused bottom. She flinched when Denna climbed into the bath with her, and saw that her Mistress did not like that.

Denna scowled at her, situating herself and draping her arms over the edges of the ornate marble basin. She sat for awhile, just soaking up the warmth, and finally pulled her arms back in, careful with her broken hand. "Turn around and get on all fours," she snapped at Kahlan.

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said, biting her lip as she turned and did as she was told, hoping to avoid Denna's ire by behaving well.

"You want me to hurt you," Denna mumbled, almost to herself, as she leaned forward and used her good hand to start plucking the splinters from Kahlan's backside and thighs.

Kahlan bit down on her arm to keep quiet. Denna wasn't exactly being rough, but she wasn't being gentle either, and any touch hurt. Especially when the splinters slid out. She cried in silence, afraid of doing something wrong.

When Denna had finished, she brought her mouth to Kahlan's bruises and the red, inflamed skin that had held the splinters, and laved the traces of abuse with her tongue.

Kahlan bit down harder on her arm, her eyes going wide. That felt so good. But she did not allow herself to be complacent, or to enjoy the touch too much, for fear it would be taken away again.

Denna moved lower, turning her head so she could reach between Kahlan's legs with her mouth, without pulling a muscle in the front of her throat. She licked hungrily, sending her tongue everywhere, swallowing what she could, pressing her face so close that all she could breathe was Kahlan.

It was unexpected. Kahlan tried not to move. Denna's hair scratched at her thighs, making them twitch with each shift of her head. The tongue on her sex was amazing, it was unlike anything she'd ever felt in her life. Unlike anything she had ever expected to feel - she had never imagined anyone would want to do this for her, and now, who was treating her to this luxury but the woman who had beat her an hour before. The paradox was not lost on the Confessor, and she tried to send her mind to another place to avoid enjoying the pleasurable gift, but she could not.

Denna whimpered against the heated flesh, taking in as much as she could, sucking and kissing and licking, then sucking and kissing again, over every inch she could reach. Finally she couldn't stand it, and she laid on her back, bringing Kahlan with her and turning her around, urging the Confessor to straddle her shoulders, then pulling Kahlan down to sit on her mouth.

Kahlan's breathing was ragged, despite how much she tried to distance herself, and as Denna's tongue plunged into her, she leaned behind her on her hands, throwing her head back and clutching Denna's face with her thighs.

Denna gripped Kahlan's hips with both hands, cringing at the pain in her broken knuckles even as it kept her grounded in the moment. She helped Kahlan ride her tongue, then at last pulled the Confessor's clit completely into her mouth and sucked for all she was worth. "I'm sorry," she murmured, when Kahlan's scream of release provided enough cover for the sentiment to go unheard. The pleasure she brought to Kahlan, and the warmth she felt when she said those two words, however, gave her courage to repeat them when things were calm. "I'm sorry," she said again, sliding out from under Kahlan to sit up, reaching around her to gingerly touch her bottom. "For this, I'm sorry."

Kahlan was absolutely stunned, and terrified of ruining the moment, so she stayed still and let the comfort of the words wash over her, and her only reply was "thank you, Mistress."

Denna put her arms around Kahlan's back and brought her close, letting the Confessor rest against her body. "You are not broken," she stated some time later. "Yet you are submissive. I do not understand."

"I believe it is possible to submit to another without losing yourself, Mistress."

"Why would you choose to do that?"

"It is not a choice I made, Mistress. You have forced my hand. But I still have respect for you, and will submit to you unequivocally and without question, even though I am still Kahlan Amnell."

"But you do not love me."

"No, Mistress. I do not. I cannot. My love is for one person, and you have taken him from me forever, so I can never love you. But I am yours, I will not dispute that fact. I will always be yours. I will always serve you, and do my best to please you in every aspect of our lives."

"You are a smart woman, Kahlan Amnell. You do well not to love me. It would make you weak, and I despise weakness. If you ever loved me, I would be forced to kill you."

"And if you ever loved anyone, Darken Rahl would make you beg to be killed," Kahlan said quietly. She understood. "I do have a strange affection for you, Mistress. I hope that is acceptable."

"And I for you," Denna said, surprised at Kahlan's insight and wisdom, though she really shouldn't have been. She was the Mother Confessor, after all. "But if you ever show it in front of another, I will flay you to within an inch of your life."

"I believe you will, Mistress, and I would never disrespect you in such a manner."

The door to the dungeons suddenly creaked open, and Kahlan tensed, climbing quickly out of the bath and kneeling on the floor beside it.

Denna was impressed, and pleased, and when their visitor finally appeared in the doorway, she smiled. "Princess Violet, how lovely to see you," she lied through her teeth. "You are just in time for another training session. Would you care to participate this time, or just watch?"

Kahlan's blood ran cold, but she knew this was to be expected. In front of others, she was still a worthless slave.

\--

"Stop!" Denna commanded, catching Violet's arm mid-swing, wresting the Agiel from her tightly clenched fingers. "I did not give you permission to hit her there."

"I'm the princess and I'll hit her wherever I like," Violet responded flippantly, reaching for the Agiel, as Kahlan sobbed in her bonds.

Denna held it out of reach. "You may be the princess, but she is my slave. And you're a little girl, playing at being a grown-up. Don't test me, you will lose."

Violet growled and sulked and wiped some of Kahlan's blood off her hands onto her dress. "Why don't you want me to hit her there, anyway?"

The sound of the princess's voice grated on Denna's nerves. "Because I said so."

"Well I'm telling my mother that you wouldn't let me play with your toys," Violet huffed, turning to stride haughtily from the room.

"Shut the door behind you."

Violet didn't.

Denna went over and shut it, throwing the latch to keep the little brat out, and went back to Kahlan. "Stop fussing, you'll be fine," she said, letting her out of her bonds and catching her before she could slump to the floor. "We have a bath to finish."

Kahlan tried to stop crying as Denna picked her up and carried her to the bath, setting her in the basin. She whimpered as the cold water hit fresh wounds.

Denna undressed efficiently and climbed into the bath with her pet, sitting with her back to the edge of the basin and pulling Kahlan between her legs, leaning against her chest. Her sweat mingled with Kahlan's blood, and she sighed contently. "That was quite a workout. And I was mostly just watching."

Kahlan gave a miserable nod, not sure how else to respond. "Yes, Mistress. I hope I pleased you."

Denna ran her fingers through Kahlan's damp, matted hair, then inspected her fingernails, flicking dirt out from underneath one. "You shouldn't cry when she beats you in certain places. It tells her where her advantage is."

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said softly, sniffing and wiping her nose with the back of her hand. She wished more than anything that Denna would really hold her, put arms around her, instead of just allowing her to lean against her chest. She barely registered what Denna was saying, with the pain of her beating dulling her senses. She struggled to listen more carefully, not wanting to displease her mistress.

But Denna was done talking. She washed Kahlan's wounds and then had Kahlan wash her, despite her pet's weak state. When they were both clean to her satisfaction, she stood and exited the basin, then lifted Kahlan out and set the shivering girl on the cool stone floor.

As she set about putting on her leathers, she realized that with Kahlan so weak and cold and shaking, her pet would never be able to sit at a table and eat dinner properly. She couldn't have that, of course. It gave her justification to fetch a thick, warm woolen blanket and wrap Kahlan in it, making sure she was warm and comfortable.

"Th-th-thank you, Mistress," Kahlan stammered, teeth chattering as she watched Denna finish pulling on her leathers and begin the slow process of lacing them up. "M-m-mistress, shouldn't I be h-helping you?" she asked, wondering why she was being given such a reprieve. She felt guilty, laying in a warm blanket while her mistress was having to dress herself.

Denna's eyes narrowed as she continued lacing her own clothing. "It is your job to do as you're told, not to decide whether you should be helping me dress or not," she said sharply. "Lie still and be quiet."

"Yes, Mistress, I'm sorry," Kahlan breathed, tears welling in her eyes.

Denna ignored her and finished dressing, then pulled her hair back into its customary braid, tying it off with a leather band at the end.

Kahlan's shivering slowly subsided, and though she was still in pain, it was bearable. A few minutes later, Denna moved her to the bed and told her to sleep until dinner.

\--

The Mord-Sith prepared a tincture for Kahlan to ward off infection - Violet had caused some fairly ghastly wounds that would not heal easily - and when she woke her pet for dinner, she held the vial to her lips and told her to drink.

Kahlan woke groggily, taking a moment to figure out where she was... she wasn't used to waking up in a soft bed. She calmed when she remembered Denna putting her to bed, and through the lifting fog of sleep she heard the command to drink, felt something press against her lips. She opened her mouth and tried not to make a face as the bitter liquid assaulted her taste buds and slid down her throat. From Denna's faint chuckle she knew she hadn't succeeded. She wondered what it was, but felt no need to ask. Denna wouldn't give her something harmful, she trusted in that.

Impressed that her pet didn't question the drink, Denna set the vial on the closest nightstand and crawled over Kahlan, leaning down to kiss her. "It's to help prevent infection from those nasty wounds," she whispered. "If I didn't make them, I don't want them infected."

Kahlan moaned softly into the kiss, and when their lips parted, she sighed. "Thank you, Mistress."

"Now, I want you to put on the dress I've laid out for you and join me at the table for dinner, before the roast gets cold."

Kahlan's mouth watered. She would do nothing to make Denna change her mind. "Yes, Mistress," she said, and as soon as Denna moved off of her, she sat up and searched for the dress, eyes widening as they landed on the beautiful velvet gown. Dark green, a shade that she could already tell would complement her eyes. She reached for it as Denna watched, and slipped it over her head, grimacing as the fabric brushed her wounds.

Denna smiled. "Don't spill anything on it," she said sweetly.

Kahlan shivered. "I won't, Mistress."

Denna's false smile faded and she took Kahlan's hand, leading her to the small wooden table in one corner of the large dungeon. The two plates fit easily, along with two goblets of wine, but there wasn't room for much else. Four unsteady chairs of the same light wood sat around the perimeter, and Denna gestured to one, allowing her pet to sit before she took the chair beside it.

Kahlan could not imagine a more appetizing meal than that before her. Several slices of steaming roast with gravy, mashed potatoes, and mixed vegetables, with a roll on the side. She wanted to start eating so badly, but she folded her hands in her lap and looked to Denna for permission.

Denna picked up her linen napkin and laid it in her lap, nodding for Kahlan to do the same. "Well?" she asked after a moment. "What are you waiting for? Start eating. Unless you don't want--"

Kahlan had a mouthful of roast before Denna finished speaking, and mumbled her thanks as she chewed. She could only guess what expression she wore, what with the bliss of the tender meat in her mouth commanding her senses.

"Don't speak with your mouth full," Denna said incredulously, carefully cutting her meat into respectable-sized slices before taking a bite. She deliberately chewed and swallowed before adding, "this is a dungeon, not a barn."

Kahlan blushed bright red, but couldn't stop herself from continuing to shovel in the food. She had no idea if or when she'd be allowed to eat such a lavish meal again, and her self control was very low. She nodded her understanding of the admonishment.

Finally Denna could stand it no longer and she reached over to grasp Kahlan's wrist mid-bite. "Slow down, you'll make yourself sick."

Kahlan didn't fight the hold, though she desperately wanted to, but as soon as her mistress let go, she couldn't help eating with just as much vigor.

Denna sighed angrily and stood from the table, hauling Kahlan up by the hair and turning her pet to face her. "What did I just say?" she scolded, one eyebrow raised. "I said slow down. The food is not going anywhere, and I will not have you forgetting your manners. You are wearing a nice dress, sitting at the table with me to enjoy a nice meal, and I expect you to behave like a lady, is that clear?"

Kahlan's eyes went wide, staring at Denna in surprise, but she nodded. "Yes, Mistress, it's clear," she whispered.

As they sat back down, Kahlan started off making herself eat slowly by cutting the meat before each bite, but when the meat was gone, and she tasted the potatoes, her stomach growling with the long-denied presence of anything but porridge, she lost her manners again. She didn't even realize until Denna snatched her plate away, and she cried out, eyes immediately turning to her mistress, who did not look at all pleased. Her fork clattered to the table.

"Hands in your lap," Denna snapped. "If they come above the table, you'll earn two hours!"

Kahlan whimpered and clutched at her dress to keep her hands beneath the table. She didn't think she could take two more hours with the Agiel tonight.

Denna scooted her chair around closer to Kahlan's, picking up the girl's fork and spearing a carrot. She brought it to Kahlan's mouth, noting the expression of relief as lips parted to accept it.

Denna waited until she chewed and swallowed before offering another bite. They continued in that fashion until Kahlan's plate was cleared, and her pet sat quietly while she finished her own food.

Kahlan wasn't sure what to say, so she offered awkwardly, "would you like me to wash the dishes, Mistress?"

"What do you think, child?" Denna asked mildly in return.

Kahlan flushed again and nodded. She was always required to wash the dishes after either of them ate. "I'm not a child, Mistress," she protested as she stood and collected the dishes. "You said that I would be Kahlan when you were Mistress."

"I also just witnessed you behaving like a toddler at the supper table," Denna pointed out, folding her arms across her chest as she leaned back lazily in her chair.

"I was just so happy to have a decent meal, Mistress," Kahlan said quietly, embarrassed by her ravenous behavior.

"We'll discuss it when you've done your chores," Denna said with finality, satisfied when her pet nodded and moved to the wash basin with the stack of dishes.

Kahlan finished her chore quickly, as used to doing it as she was, and returned to Denna's side, a little surprised when her mistress patted her lap, but she eased onto it, biting her lip, not sure what exactly the discussion was going to entail.

"Good girl," Denna purred, kissing behind Kahlan's right ear. "Are they spotless?"

"As always, Mistress."

Denna smirked. "I taught you well." She brought a hand up to stroke through Kahlan's long, dark hair. "Now, you said you were just so happy to have a decent meal?" she questioned.

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said. "It was so deliciou--"

Denna cleared her throat, and her pet stopped talking. "Am I to infer that you find the porridge from the kitchen inadequate? The porridge the cooks make special just for you, three times a day, slaving over the fires even in the middle of summer, just to feed you?"

Kahlan's eyes once again went wide. She hadn't thought of that. Hadn't thought of what her statement could have been construed to imply. Though to be honest, the implication was true. The porridge was wholly inadequate, and never filled her stomach to the level the roast, potatoes and vegetables just had. She was continually hungry, if not starving, most of the time. "Mistress, I--"

"I order that porridge for you myself, child," Denna interrupted darkly. "If not for me, you would have nothing to eat, and would waste away. I should allow it, for your insolence, but I don't want my little girl to starve." She stroked Kahlan's cheek tenderly for a moment, then lightly tapped it.

"I'm not a little girl," Kahlan whispered.

Denna had not expected defiance, and her nostrils flared. "You've just earned two hours," she hissed.

"No!" Kahlan begged, her breath coming raggedly, body shaking at the mere thought of enduring Denna's Agiel after all Violet had done to her. She had mistakenly thought that Denna would take it easy on her, because... well, she thought they had formed at least some sort of bond, but... With a gasp, she realized that perhaps her insolence had hurt her mistress, and that is why Denna had given her two hours. "Please! I'm sorry!" she continued. "I'll be a little girl... Please, Mistress, I didn't mean to hurt you, I'm a little girl, I'm your little girl, please..."

Denna gave a violent scream and twisted the collar of Kahlan's dress in her fist, giving her pet such a mighty shove backward that Kahlan stumbled all the way to the wall, smacking into it and crumbling into a ball on the floor. "How DARE you suggest that anything you say could EVER hurt me!" she raged.

Kahlan forced herself onto her hands and knees as Denna approached, and lowered her face to her mistress's boots, choking on a sob. "I'm so sorry, Mistress. I know I deserve the two hours." How could she have been so insensitive? Of course Denna could let her starve. She should be grateful for the porridge; even if it left her hungry, it kept her alive. And now she had upset the one person in the world she wanted comfort from, the one person who had the power to comfort her.

Denna took the dress off with care and set it over the back of a chair, not wanting to rip it, but once Kahlan was naked, the venom crept back into her movements. She dragged her to the middle of the dungeon by her hair and quickly chained her up. "You could never hurt me," she said, her voice low and dangerous as she applied her Agiel to Kahlan's ribcage.

Tears streamed down Kahlan's cheeks before the Agiel even touched her skin. She wasn't stupid, she knew she had hurt Denna, even if Denna would never admit it. And now she'd had the Mord-Sith's rare tenderness taken away. She'd do anything to get it back. And that frustrated her, because the first time Denna showed her affection, she'd known this would happen. She'd tried not to want it, tried not to need it, because she knew that once she did, it would be taken away. And she'd been right.

Denna tried to enjoy Kahlan's helpless screams and sobs, but she knew they were caused by the Agiel, not by her. She told herself this was why they held no appeal. She took no pleasure from torturing Kahlan this way anymore, but she completed the two hours, as she'd already handed down the sentence, and would not repeal that which she had handed down. Kahlan's crying had the opposite effect on her that it usually would have - she wanted it to stop.

By the time the two hours had finished, and Denna put away the Agiel, Kahlan was hyperventilating with tears, begging Denna to forgive her, apologizing over and over, begging for more punishment if her mistress would only forgive her.

Hands poised to let Kahlan down from her bonds, Denna asked a question. "Who do you belong to?"

"I belong to you, Mistress," Kahlan sobbed, desperate for an embrace that held no anger.

Denna was angry, but at herself, not at Kahlan anymore. She released her and carried her to the bed, laying her in it. "I expect you'll want to sleep," she said without affect.

"No!" Kahlan cried, reaching out her arms. "Please, Mistress!"

Denna stopped her retreat, brows furrowed, and turned, the confusion evident on her face. Why wouldn't her pet jump at the chance to have time to herself, to sleep in the soft, warm bed without being bothered? "What," she asked, "please what? What do you want?"

"Another chance to be your little girl," Kahlan sobbed.

Denna froze, her heart threatening to wrap around her lungs and choke her. After all that, after two hours with the Agiel, instead of wanting some peace, Kahlan wanted another chance to... to what, exactly? To answer correctly? To behave like a child? To please her, most likely. A fierce, protective urge flared in Denna's chest and she questioned her insanity, because all she wanted to do was hold Kahlan. Regret gnawed at her insides, telling her she shouldn't have given her pet the two hours, that she should have given her another chance to begin with, that she should have understood her pet's need to be viewed as an adult, even in her bonds of slavery.

And now, Kahlan didn't cry to be left alone, she cried to be with Denna. The Mord-Sith was disgusted with herself for even bothering to figure out the needs of her pet, but she could do nothing to assuage the desire to comfort the Confessor.

Climbing atop Kahlan on all fours, Denna leaned down and rubbed her cheek across her pet's forehead, murmuring into her ear. "Shh, I'm here... Stop crying, child."

Kahlan tried to force herself to stop crying, drawing comfort from Denna's words, and her touch. That gentle, alluring touch of cheek to forehead, the hum of Denna's chest as she spoke softly. As she took a slow breath to calm herself, her own voice came out shaky and winded, but she answered much differently than she had before, not allowing the word 'child' to bother her despite her natural instinct to take offense. Closing her eyes, she answered in a way that she hoped would please her mistress, at least slightly. She nodded her head and tucked her face into Denna's neck, murmuring quietly, "yes, Mama."

Denna's arms buckled and her shoulders landed on Kahlan's as she gave a strangled gasp, tears filling her eyes. She gently lowered her hips so she laid on top of her pet, speechless for once in her life, drowning in a sea of raging, consuming emotion. Her own breath suddenly matched Kahlan's, harsh and ragged. She rolled onto her side, half atop the Confessor now, and reached down for a sheet to cover them. "Sleep, now," she commanded. "I'll have no argument."

Kahlan nuzzled into Denna and closed her eyes.

\--

She woke to a mouth between her legs, jerking in surprise and lifting her head with wide eyes, then relaxing at the sight of her mistress. "Mistress," she whispered, a soft moan escaping. "May I touch your head?"

"Mhm," Denna murmured, grinning when Kahlan's hand settled lightly on the back of her head. She ran her tongue in slow strokes, unhurried, indulgent, just enjoying the taste, and the feel of her pet's slickness against her mouth. When she had brought the Confessor to completion, she roamed further upward with her kisses and lay down beside her. "Did you sleep well?"

"Very well, Mistress, thank you," Kahlan said breathlessly. "Did..." she hesitated, wondering if it was permissible to ask, "did you?"

"I did," Denna replied, a lazy smile on her face. "Do you know what we're going to do today?"

Kahlan shook her head, looking into Denna's bright, mischievous blue eyes.

"I am going to school you on the history of the Mord-Sith."

"Really?" Kahlan asked, eyes lighting with interest.

Denna hadn't expected her to be so eager, and an amused smirk curled one corner of her mouth. "Do you think I would say it if it weren't true?"

Kahlan blushed. "No, Mistress."

Denna gave her thigh a gentle slap. "Now, your porridge is waiting for you at the table. Be a good girl and eat, then return to me here and I will have a dress waiting for you."

"Yes, Mistress."

"And Kahlan?" Denna said when her pet had taken a few steps from the bed.

"Yes, Mistress?" Kahlan asked, stopping to turn.

Denna's smirk grew, and she twirled a lock of her long blonde hair around one finger. "I expect you to submit to the appellation of 'child'."

Kahlan flushed. "Without insolence, Mistress?" She bit her lip.

Denna's eyes went wide and she lunged from the bed, chasing Kahlan to the table and pressing her down into the chair with a laugh. "Yes, Pet, without insolence, you insolent thing."

Kahlan smiled sheepishly and started to eat. She noticed there was more porridge in her bowl this morning, and that strange affection for Denna flared in her chest again. "What will happen if I am insolent, Mistress? Are we playing a game?"

Denna considered, carefully sitting in Kahlan's lap while she ate. She noticed Kahlan try not to flinch at the contact with a wound on the top of her right thigh. Finally, she leaned her forehead against Kahlan's temple to breathe into her ear. "No game," she whispered. "I want to school you as my mother never had a chance to school me."

Kahlan's levity faded with that answer, and she stopped eating for a moment to put her arms around Denna. "I will behave, and do my best to learn, Mistress."

Denna stroked her sides, gentle hands traveling up and down her bare skin. "Kahlan," she asked, her voice suddenly small and more vulnerable than Kahlan had ever heard it.

"Yes, Mistress?"

"If you could escape, would you?"

Kahlan hesitated before answering, her eyes filling with tears. "Yes, Mistress," she choked out softly.

Denna nodded. "I thought it would be so."

She sounded resigned, but not entirely displeased, Kahlan noted with relief and sorrow both. "Does it displease you, Mistress?"

"No," Denna replied, trailing her fingertips over Kahlan's ribs, tracing bruises and welts, both fresh and fading. "All right, eat, child, you'll be late for your lessons. And you still have to get dressed."

Kahlan recognized the change in roles by the change in tone, and hurried to finish eating. "Yes, Mother."

"Mm-mm, not Mother," Denna shook her head, leaning close to Kahlan's ear again. Her voice lowered to a throaty whisper. "Mama." She straightened as Kahlan took the last bite, and stood, patting her head. "Go get dressed, child."

Kahlan shivered at the idea of what she was to call Denna, and as she went to the bed, she realized her mistress hadn't had time to choose a dress for her. She stopped at the edge and turned back, hands clasped in front of her. "What may I wear?" she asked respectfully.

Denna rifled through a trunk at the foot of the bed, coming up with a light blue summer dress, while simultaneously wondering what a light blue summer dress was doing in a trunk in the dungeon.

Kahlan slipped it on, enjoying the airy feel of the material, even if any touch aggravated her wounds. This was much more pleasant than tight clothes or anything heavy.

Denna went back to the table and dragged a chair from it into the center of the cavernous room. "Come, sit." She then dragged the table over and went to the writing desk in one corner for some parchment, a pen, and ink. "You're expected to take notes," she told Kahlan once her pet was settled.

"Okay, Mama," Kahlan said demurely, picking up the pen and dipping it in the ink jar, then scrawling her name on the parchment.

Denna shivered. She gripped a fistful of Kahlan's long, dark hair, then pet it softly and relaxed, standing from her perch on the edge of the table and walking away. "Mord-Sith are captured at a very young age, darling, and taken from their families. Do you know why taking them so young is important?"

Kahlan put 'captured young' on her paper, and offered a guess. "So they aren't very strong?"

Denna smiled, shaking her head, walking a slow path back and forth in front of Kahlan. "The strongest girl is no match for a few Mord-Sith," she explained. "Even a woman is no match for just one."

Kahlan flushed. She knew that Denna was referring to her.

Denna's boots clicked on the stone floor as she walked, forcing herself to keep moving, because holding still proved too much a temptation to go to Kahlan. "They're taken so young because they're easier to manipulate. Their emotions are displayed flawlessly on their faces, they can hide nothing from those who would wish to exploit it."

Kahlan nodded, not sure what to write for that, so she ended up putting 'easier to manipulate'.

"A young girl still has hopes and dreams to crush... powerful tools in bending her to another's will."

"Were you frightened, Mama? When they came for you?" Kahlan asked, already fascinated with the lesson. She didn't think of the possible ramifications of that question before she asked it. She shrank back in her chair, prepared to be screamed at and struck.

Had Kahlan not flinched in fear, Denna might have yelled and struck her, but the simple act let the Mord-Sith know that her pet realized how unacceptable the question was. That in itself was quite a feat, considering Kahlan's stubbornness. She stopped in front of her and bent at the waist, dropping a kiss to Kahlan's nose. "No," she lied smoothly. "I fear nothing now, and I feared nothing then."

Wide eyes looked up at her mistress, and Kahlan did her best not to call Denna out on that lie. It would serve neither of them to bring confrontation. "You must have been so brave," she whispered, turning her face away.

Slightly nonplussed, Denna nodded, continuing with the ruse. "I was. I never cried for my Mama." Another lie.

"I would cry if they came to take me from you," Kahlan breathed. And it was true - if any other Mord-Sith came to take her from Denna, she would beg them to let her stay. She would rather be with Denna than any of them, after what they had shared together.

Denna moved to her, taking Kahlan's head to her waist. "I know," she said soothingly, petting the girl's hair. "They will not take you. You belong to me."

Kahlan found herself trembling at the mere prospect, now that she had voiced its possibility aloud. "Do you promise, Mama?" she asked quietly.

Denna shivered again, bent to look into Kahlan's eyes. "I promise, child. You are mine. No one would dare take you from me. None would even think of trying."

Kahlan slowly nodded, swallowing hard. "You really weren't scared at all, Mama?" she asked, her eyes filled with tears. If she could ever get Denna to share anything personal, she thought this was the forum in which to try.

Denna let a soft smile grace her lips, holding up two fingers a scant hairsbreadth apart. "Maybe a little," she admitted, then stroked a hand down Kahlan's face. "Now, back to your lessons, child." She walked away again, pacing. "The purpose of the Mord-Sith is to be protectors to the master of D'Hara, the Lord Rahl. They must be unquestionably loyal and unflinching in the carriage of their duty, and it is for this reason they must be broken three times."

Kahlan scribbled 'broken three times' on her parchment, then turned her eyes back to Denna.

"The first breaking strips her of her will, her desires, her sense of self. She is tortured day and night for months, even years, until the only thought in her head is of obeying her master or mistress. Of pleasing her master or mistress above all else. Hunger, thirst, companionship... these mean nothing when the first training is complete. There is no trace of herself left in the girl. None that shows in her actions or lingers in her waking thoughts. She is bent to her master's will, unequivocally and irrevocably."

The apathetic way Denna spoke these words broke Kahlan's heart. Tears were streaming down her cheeks by the time her mistress had finished, and she sniffed, wiping her nose on the hem of her dress.

One eyebrow lifted, Denna pulled her from her chair by the arm and smacked her bottom. "Do not dirty your dress," she scolded, sitting the girl back down. "Ask for a cloth."

Kahlan whimpered, her cheeks turning red as she stared at her parchment. "Sorry," she whispered. It was more embarrassing than painful, really, but it still hurt, given the extent of her injuries.

Denna peered at Kahlan's notes. Finding them satisfactory, she moved on. "Next, the second breaking. The girl is forced to watch another Mord-Sith torture her mother to breaking, and then death."

Kahlan gasped. She had not known this beforehand, like she'd known of the first breaking. It came as a shock and caused bile to rise in her throat.

"This is to break her compassion. If she does nothing to assuage the screams of a loved one, she will do nothing to assuage the screams of an enemy in battle, or a captive in the dungeon."

Kahlan couldn't bring herself to write any of that down, and she only realized she'd closed her eyes when she felt Denna's hand wrap around her wrist and they flew open wide. Her mistress guided her hand to the ink jar, urged her to dip the pen, then forced her to write 'her mother is tortured to breaking and death in front of her'.

"Do you understand?" Denna asked, her voice raised.

"Y-yes," Kahlan stammered, wiping at her eyes again, trying to keep tears from falling. Her mother had died of sickness, and that had been bad enough. She couldn't imagine having to watch her be-- she just couldn't imagine.

"The third breaking," Denna said coldly. "The girl is given her Agiel. She must torture her father to the point of breaking, and when he breaks, she must kill him." She watched as Kahlan wept. "This is to teach her to inflict pain and suffering. If she can kill her own father, she can kill anyone without hesitation."

Kahlan's hand shook, her vision watery as she scrawled 'she must torture and kill her father' on the parchment.

Once again, Denna leaned down, this time to slap her hand over Kahlan's parchment. Her pet flinched. "My father begged me not to kill him. He begged me not to let them win, not to become what they wished of me." Her eyes were wide, memories dancing across them, her jaw clenched tightly.

Kahlan realized Denna was caught in the grip of the painful memory, and waited with bated breath.

A slow smirk crept onto Denna's lips and she snarled as she straightened, putting one boot on the chair between Kahlan's knees. "I killed him anyway." She paused, tilting her head to the side. "Do you want to know something, Kahlan?"

Kahlan didn't trust herself to speak, so she just waited, staring into Denna's eyes... eyes filled with madness.

"Lord Rahl almost killed me because he thought I wouldn't break. My training took so long, he almost gave up on me. No training of a Mord-Sith has ever taken as long as mine did," she said smugly.

"You-- you held onto your humanity," Kahlan whispered, crying out when Denna backhanded her swiftly across the face.

"How dare you spew such filth!" Denna screamed. "I held onto my strength, and my will!"

"I'm sorry!" Kahlan cried, putting a hand to her bloody mouth.

"Humanity had nothing to do with it!" Denna raged. "How dare you! How DARE you! I held out because I was strong! Not because I--"

Kahlan watched in awestruck horror as Denna crumpled to the ground in sobs. As her mistress's shaking grew more violent, she rushed to her and pulled the blonde head into her lap. "Mistress," she said desperately. "Please, I don't know what to do for you..."

Denna clutched the hem of Kahlan's dress to her chest, sobs wracking her body as her mother and father's faces tormented her mind. "I was frightened when they took me," she confessed, then stuffed some of the fabric into her mouth to keep herself from talking.

Kahlan forcibly pulled the fabric from her mistress's mouth and stroked her braid. She didn't say anything, but she refused to let Denna stifle her words, if more were to come.

It was nearly a half hour before Denna crawled away and threw up, Kahlan rushing after her to hold her braid out of the way, and then cleaning up the mess. "Mistress," she said carefully when she'd finished, sitting on the stone beside Denna's head.

The cool stone felt good on the side of her face. Her body was drained of moisture, and purging her stomach had lessened the nausea. "My father took me fishing when I was four. I sat in the boat with my hands covering my eyes until he took me back to shore. I couldn't bear to see the fish caught on hooks."

Encouraged, Kahlan scooted closer and ran her fingertips up and down Denna's back through her leather. "My father was a warrior before he was a king. He taught me to fight."

Denna closed her eyes. "My mother tried to send me to school, but the other children taunted me and I never raised a hand to defend myself. I couldn't stand the thought of hurting another."

"That's why they chose you?" Kahlan asked softly. "Because of your extraordinary compassion for all life?"

"Yes," Denna said, her voice void of emotion in some ways, and full of it in others. "From the gentlest girls comes the greatest capacity for cruelty."

"Your parents would have been proud that you took so long to break, Mistress," Kahlan offered, fingers going to the laces of Denna's neck guard and starting to loosen them.

"My father's face dances in my mind, now," Denna said flatly. "His spirit is anything but proud."

"Perhaps he doesn't understand what you went through... how you had no choice."

"I do not know what he understands, or what he doesn't. Only that his spirit holds the greatest hatred and disappointment for me."

"Perhaps you misunderstand," Kahlan said, removing the guard and placing it on the floor beside them. "Perhaps his hatred and disappointment is for what you were forced to become, not for you as his daughter." Her fingers worked the buttons to the side of Denna's leathers.

"Perhaps," Denna allowed for the possibility. "Either way, I have failed him. In what I was forced to become, or chose to become, it doesn't matter. His opinion of me holds no consequence."

Kahlan thought there was all evidence to the contrary, but she chose not to say it. Denna lifted up so she could slide the leather top off, and Kahlan left it beneath her so that her chest would not contact the bare floor as she lay back down. She removed the Mord-Sith's boots and then tugged at the waistband of her pants.

Denna's hips rose to allow Kahlan to remove her pants, and she shivered as she settled back down to the stone. "What of your father?" she asked. "Where is he now?"

Kahlan sighed, folding the pants and setting them beside Denna's boots. "In the spirit world, as is yours." She helped Denna to stand and led her to the bed, guiding her face-down onto it and beginning to massage her shoulders. "He died when my mother's nurses announced there was nothing more to be done for her."

"Your mother was ill."

Kahlan pressed with her thumbs, working the tension away from Denna's shoulder blades. "Yes."

"She knew you loved her?"

"Yes."

"My mother died thinking I didn't love her. I sat there and watched, and did nothing while they tortured her to death."

"There was nothing you could do." She moved her hands down Denna's back, stroking and pressing in all the right places to make her mistress groan.

"Don't tell me you think that makes it all right," Denna said bitterly.

"No," Kahlan admitted. "But it is true, isn't it?"

"I could've tried to stop it, and died with her," Denna said after long moments of silence.

"Is that what you wish?"

Denna hesitated in answering, but finally did. "Sometimes, yes."

"Do you think that would have been better? Do you think she would rather have had you die trying to protect her? What would that have accomplished?"

Denna laughed, a hollow, mirthless sound. "Yes, Kahlan. The world is so much better off with the likes of me in it."

Kahlan slapped her bottom.

Denna looked sharply back over her shoulder. "Don't you dare, I am still your mistress," she said before settling again.

Kahlan couldn't resist. She smacked her again, harder, and then before Denna had a chance to get angry, or continue moping, she laid next to her and pressed their lips together in a kiss.

Denna moaned, first at the unexpected smack, and then into the kiss. Her pet certainly had nerve. "You are only getting away with this because of my exposed and vulnerable state," she mumbled against Kahlan's lips.

"You liked it," Kahlan whispered into her ear. "You want me to do it again."

Denna smiled, turning on her side facing Kahlan and letting a hand roam down her side to rest on her hip. "No, I don't want you to do it again," she said, deliberately not denying the fact that she'd liked it. But that didn't mean she'd like it again.

Kahlan was about to reply when a knock at the door sent her into a panic. Her breath caught, her eyes going wide. "Mistress, please," she begged. "Don't let them in, please, I--"

"Hush," Denna told her, sitting up to make her voice carry across the room. "Come back later!"

"You can't tell me to come back later!" came the petulant voice of the princess from the other side of the door. It rattled as she tried to open it. "I'll have your head! Open this door at once!"

Denna snatched her Agiel from her nightstand and strode naked to the door, unlatching the bolt and flinging it open. "Unless you want my Agiel rammed into that tiny little brain of yours, you'll shut your fucking mouth and do as I say!" she snapped at the princess.

Eyes wide in surprised terror, Violet stumbled back a few steps and then turned to run up the stairs, wailing for her mommy.

Smug, Denna slammed the door and flicked the bolt back into place, then strolled leisurely toward Kahlan and crawled over her on all fours, setting the Agiel on the nighstand again. She leaned down and kissed her, tongue tracing slightly parted lips. "We have roughly thirty seconds before the queen is at our door," she said, rolling her eyes.

Kahlan groaned, arching into the kiss, wishing she wasn't wearing anything so she could feel Denna's skin everywhere. She stiffened at her mistress's words. "The queen? She won't hurt you, will she?"

"No," Denna smiled, rubbing her nose against Kahlan's and then kissing her again. "I might have to hurt her, though. I want you lying face down with your eyes closed when I go to the door."

Kahlan swallowed, suddenly fearful for her mistress's safety, but nodded. "Yes, Mistress."

Denna was right. Less than a minute later came pounding on the door.

"Open this door, Mord-Sith!" the queen bellowed.

Denna made a mocking face and rose from the bed, making sure Kahlan turned over and closed her eyes before she went to the door and threw it open, Agiel in her fist. "You will call me Mistress Denna," she hissed. "You may be the queen of this castle, but I am the queen of the New World, under Lord Rahl, and I outrank you by a startling measure."

"How dare you," Queen Milena said darkly. "You are nothing but a filthy whore. Guards!"

Before the guards took a step, Denna's Agiel was buried between the queen's breasts, and the portly woman slumped to the ground, blood seeping from her mouth and ears. Denna glanced at the guards, raising one perfect eyebrow, and gestured at their fallen monarch. "You might want to clean that up. And find a ruler more respectful of the Lord Rahl's favored Mord-Sith."

The guards stood, stunned, and one knelt to take a pulse. Finding none, he went to one knee and gave a salute to Denna. "As you wish, Mistress Denna."

"Thank you," Denna said sweetly. "And see to it that I'm not disturbed until supper."

"Of course, Mistress Denna," the guard said as she slammed the door and threw the bolt.

Satisfied with the outcome of things thus far, Denna sauntered back to Kahlan and dropped her Agiel on the nightstand yet again, sliding onto the bed above her pet.

"Did you just kill the queen?" Kahlan asked, her body relaxing from its rigid state when Denna lay over her.

Denna grabbed a fistful of her hair and tugged, hard. "Are you questioning me?"

"No, Mistress, I just wanted to-- I'm afraid for you, that's all... what if the guards come back? What if Tamarang's army comes after you?"

"Would it be so bad?" Denna asked wistfully. "If they kill me, you would be free. There would be less suffering in the world."

"Don't say that, Mistress, please," Kahlan implored, her voice quiet, gentle. "I would welcome freedom, but not at the price of your life."

Denna's brows lifted. "If you could kill me to escape, you wouldn't?"

Tears filled Kahlan's eyes. When she was first captured, she had longed with all her heart to see her captor dead. Now, even the prospect of freedom couldn't make her wish it. She shook her head.

Denna regarded her studiously. "Interesting."

"It's not so interesting, Mistress. I care for you."

"I know you do, child."

"Stop calling me that... you're the one acting like a child, saying the world would be better off without you, moping around and doing foolish things like killing the queen whose dungeon we currently occupy!"

Denna dug her fingernails into the back of Kahlan's neck until she drew blood, enjoying the little cry of pain the Confessor let out. "Don't talk to me that way. Have you taken leave of your senses?"

Kahlan wriggled around until she could turn on her side, and kissed Denna. "I think I have," she agreed in a whisper. "Being faced with the thought of your death urges me to take risks in attempt to protect you."

"And how would you attempt to protect me?" Denna asked, eyebrows lifting once again.

"I was hoping I could just talk sense into you," Kahlan murmured, looking into her mistress's bright blue eyes.

"And in the absence of that success?"

Kahlan blushed. "I would do nothing more than you allow me, Mistress."

"And if I were to allow you creative license?"

Kahlan blushed deeper. "I would correct your behavior, Mistress. I would-- I would punish you." The words felt so incredibly strange to even think, let alone say aloud.

"You... would punish me?" Denna drawled, letting silence linger between them before she gripped Kahlan's jaw and squeezed. "Very well. Try."

"What?" Kahlan's breath left her in a rush.

Denna smirked. "I said very well. Try," she repeated. "Correct my behavior, if you have the nerve."

Never in a thousand centuries would Kahlan have expected that response. She wasn't prepared for it. She tried to call upon her feelings when she had first arrived. All the things she would have paid any price to do to Denna back then. Not only did the feelings fail to come, but they wouldn't have been useful if they had. Her motivation was different now. "And you... you will do as I say?" she asked, her voice trembling with uncertainty.

"Within reason," Denna snarked.

Kahlan set her jaw. "What is your definition of reason?"

"Don't argue semantics," Denna said flippantly. "Either take charge or don't."

"Don't... don't talk to me like that," Kahlan said nervously, testing her temporary boundaries. When Denna merely grinned, she continued with a bit more confidence, though her voice still wavered. "Say you're sorry."

Denna's grin turned to a smirk. "I'm sorry," she said, less sincere than if she were speaking to a rock.

Kahlan lifted a shaking hand and merely tapped her mistress's cheek.

Denna threw back her head and laughed, until a hand fisted in her braid and a stinging slap cut across her cheek. Her laughter died out instantly, replaced by a hard look.

Kahlan gasped, ducking her head and murmuring apologies one after another. "Dear spirits, I'm sorry, Mistress, I'm so sorry, I'm sor--"

Denna put a finger to her lips to shush her, and leaned forward, breathing into Kahlan's ear. "I deserved it." When she felt Kahlan start to breathe again, she continued. "I don't think you're ready to correct my behavior."

"Be quiet, Mistress," Kahlan insisted. "I'm ready. I don't want you thinking so ill of yourself." She pushed herself up to sit against the head of the bed and pressed her naked mistress across her lap with a hand between the shoulder blades, then smacked her bottom.

Denna jumped, surprised, and impressed. She did as commanded - she found the instruction within reason. When Kahlan spanked her again, though, she couldn't keep quiet. "You realize I am Mord-Sith," she said flatly. "A spanking is pleasurable, if even felt at all."

Kahlan bit her lip, wondering what she could possibly do to get Denna vulnerable enough to work on her self-esteem. Just the thought of it was completely absurd. Why should she want to increase the self-esteem of a Mord-Sith, for Creation's sake?!

She knew the answer to that, though. Because Denna wasn't just a Mord-Sith to her anymore. Denna was her mistress. Her disciplinarian, but also her protector.

"I know, Mistress," she finally said softly. "I'll wait until I have you crying and vulnerable, first. Then I'll spank you."

Denna couldn't help the snort of laughter that burrowed its way out. "You think you're going to make me cry?"

"Yes."

The laughter faded. "That's very ambitious of you, Pet."

"Stand up, Mistress," Kahlan instructed, stroking a hand along her braid.

Denna rolled off of her lap and stood, taking her time, pushing boundaries wherever they met her.

Kahlan was patient. She took her mistress's hand and led her to the center of the room, to the shackles hanging from a beam, the ones she herself was often chained in.

"Really, Pet?" Denna asked, raising an eyebrow, putting her fists on her hips.

Kahlan ignored the insolence, instead giving another command. "Raise your arms above your head, Mistress."

Denna complied, a smirk on her lips as Kahlan fastened her wrists into the shackles. She barely had to raise on the balls of her feet to alleviate the pressure on her shoulders.

"Can you get out of them?" Kahlan asked, stepping back.

"I am a Mord-Sith, not a sorceress. I have no magic."

"I meant, are they tight enough to hold you," Kahlan clarified gently.

Denna yanked on the cuffs, trying to pull her hands free, to no avail. "Yes, they are," she announced unnecessarily.

Kahlan nodded and stepped forward again, resting one hand on Denna's waist while the other sought the soft blonde curls between her legs.

Denna gasped, blue eyes springing wide open, and she jerked her hips away from Kahlan's hand. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Exploiting your weakness," Kahlan said, laying the truth out for her mistress without hesitation. "You once told me that you can only reach release with an Agiel in your backside. I cannot hold an Agiel."

Realization dawned quickly, and Denna tried to jerk away again. "Don't you dare! I will punish you so severely you'll beg me to kill you," she hissed venomously, struggling in her bonds.

"Relax, Mistress," Kahlan said with a sigh. "I see no other way to correct your bad behavior."

Denna's chest heaved, her stomach quivering as her pet pressed a kiss to it. "This isn't funny anymore, Kahlan. Let me down."

"I never thought it was funny," Kahlan finally snapped, her patience starting to wear thin. "Saying the world would be better off without you is not funny. Doing something as stupid as killing the queen is not funny. Thinking I would be better off with you dead is not funny. You captured me, you killed the man I love, you took my freedom and gave me pain in return for the longest time... and now that we've managed to move past that into something tenuously akin to affection, you think I'd be happy to let soldiers barge in here and kill you! You take away everything from me... everything! And replace it with you... and now you want to take that from me too! The only thing I have left, the only thing in the world that still means anything to me... you would take her from me."

Denna's breath was coming in ragged pants, both because of her struggles and at Kahlan's heartfelt words. "Kahlan," she said, and stopped, not knowing what else she could possibly say. It sparked a feeling of guilt, that her pet was so affected by her self-loathing. Guilt was not an emotion she was used to. It hurt. It burned in her chest.

"We will go away from here," Kahlan said firmly. "When I release you, you will take us away from here, away from the threat to you."

Denna simply swallowed.

"Mistress, please. Say you'll take us away."

"I will," Denna said, her voice choked. "Let me down."

"I'm not done yet," Kahlan reminded her. "I haven't made you cry."

"You've gotten close enough," the Mord-Sith said with a sigh. "Too close."

"When you captured me and made me your pet, that entitled you to take what you wanted from me. But it also bound you to the responsibility to provide for me, if you wanted me alive to torture. I think that now, the responsibility to provide for me means more to you than keeping me alive to torture. I know it, in fact. You said I'd be better off without you, which tells me that my well-being is at least of trifling importance to you. Is it?"

Denna stared over Kahlan's shoulder and gave a mute nod.

Kahlan hauled her arm back and slapped Denna's face so hard that her cheek was instantly colored. "Then how dare you suggest that I be without you! How dare you do that to me! After all you've done to me, you owe me! Do you hear me, Mistress? I understand you. I care for you. You are important to me, despite everything negative that we've shared. You are important, do you understand? Do you!"

A single tear trailed down Denna's reddened cheek.

"Answer me!"

Denna hung her head, staring at the floor. "I understand," she whispered. "I just don't understand why. I'm made for hate and you for love. You should want me out, to tip the balance in your favor."

"Well I don't. To the Keeper with duty, with choosing sides in the great battle of good versus evil. I'm not even the Mother Confessor anymore, without access to my power. I'm just Kahlan." She put her arms around her Mistress and dropped a kiss to her collarbone. Her voice lowered, wisping out against Denna's skin. "Just Kahlan. Just your pet." She took a slow breath and pressed her lips to Denna's neck, murmuring into it. "In some ways, I feel like I should thank you, for taking me from a life of duty and allowing me to be free."

"You're not free, Kahlan," Denna said bitterly.

"I'm free of putting the Midlands before my own needs. I'm free of hiding my desires because the public would never approve of their Mother Confessor wanting anything for herself. I'm free of taking the confessions of murderers and listening in detail to every crime they ever committed. Heinous, sinister things that an entire army of Mord-Sith could never even aspire to. I'm free of the responsibility to maintain a perfect image. At least what I have with you is raw, and real, and I don't have to share it with nobles and politicians. Even as your pet, I can be myself, at last."

"I never meant to free you from any of those things."

"But you did."

"But I did."

Kahlan nuzzled her nose against Denna's neck and then trailed kisses up the side of her face. "Maybe I can hold an Agiel, just for a second," she breathed.

Denna groaned, her heart pounding against her ribcage. "I don't want you to do that... it's not proper." The argument was weak, at best, and she knew it.

"Proper?" Kahlan asked, a quiet laugh rumbling forth as she shook her head. She was about to show Denna something entirely improper when she heard heavy footsteps above them, and was reminded of the situation they were in. "We have to go. Now. Please."

Denna nodded. "Free my hands. I'll put a dress on and bring my leathers." It would take her too long to get into them.

Kahlan worked the key into each lock and let Denna down, then hurried with her mistress to the bed to collect their things.

Denna grabbed the first dress she found in the trunk and slipped it on - dark green velvet, with flowing bell sleeves, but it would have to do. She slid her Agiel's chain around her right wrist, the metal rubbing against her chafed skin and making her shiver. She saw that Kahlan had gathered her leathers, and a cursory glance around revealed nothing else they would need. At the last moment she remembered Kahlan's things, which she had stored in a closet, and she quickly grabbed up the Confessor dress, underthings, and boots with daggers tucked into them. "This way," she said, nodding toward a door at the far end of the dungeon. It led to a lesser-used passageway, and from there they could slip into the tunnels beneath the castle and escape through one of the out-of-use aqueducts.

Both women were adept at maneuvering through difficult locations, and soon they were in the woods surrounding Tamarang, heading east.

"Where will we go?" Kahlan asked once they were a good distance away from the castle.

"Across the Kern River into D'Hara," Denna answered.

"To the People's Pala--"

"No," the Mord-Sith all but shouted. "I will never take you to the People's Palace, unless I am specifically ordered to do so."

Kahlan didn't have to ask why. Darken Rahl resided at the People's Palace, and she guessed Denna didn't want her anywhere near him. She knew he had a habit of taking things that weren't his. "Mistress?" she asked gently, moving closer and walking just behind and to the left of Denna.

"What."

"We don't have any blankets, or food..."

"Can you hunt?"

Kahlan remembered the way Richard had taught her to set traps and snares, but they didn't have any of that equipment now. She knew there were daggers in her boots, and nodded toward the pile of her things in Denna's arms. "I could probably catch something small with my daggers."

Denna turned them slightly left. "We'll head northeast, and pick up supplies in Kelton. It's a little less than a day and a half's walk. You can hunt us something for breakfast in the morning and we'll skip lunch, then eat in town tomorrow night."

Kahlan smiled and nodded her agreement. "And I suppose for blankets, we can use these extra clothes. I can start a fire, too. If we find a wayward pine, that should shelter us from the wind."

"You seem well-versed in matters of the woods."

Kahlan's eyes lowered to stare at the ground as they walked. "Richard taught me to survive in the wilderness."

Denna turned and gripped her hair, suddenly. "I am your mistress now," she hissed. "You will no longer mention his name."

Kahlan's eyes filled with tears at the admonition, but Denna did not relent. "Yes, Mistress," she finally whispered, hurt by the icy tone of her mistress's voice and by the command itself.

Denna's hand itched to stroke Kahlan's hair, to tell her it was all right, but she forced herself to simply let go and turn around to keep walking.

\--

Three hours later they made camp in a small, cozy wayward pine a short distance off the road. Kahlan immediately began gathering wood. She set up a circle of stones in the dirt, dropping a few smaller sticks into the middle of it, and then set about taking care of other things. They hadn't spoken after the incident regarding Richard's name, and Kahlan was worried that her mistress was still angry with her. She did her best to be good, making sure their things were arranged nicely, and she folded her Confessor dress on the ground near the fire for Denna to sit on. She did a few things to make the place look homey, hoping it would make her mistress more comfortable.

The longer she waited, the hungrier she got, and she imagined her mistress would be hungry, too. She didn't venture far from camp - if there was no game nearby, she would wait for Denna to return and ask permission to hunt further off. As luck would have it, a rabbit darted by, and she prepared it out of the pine, not wanting to soil their living space with blood.

When she had the fire lit, she put the rabbit on a spit and rigged it to hang over the fire to cook, then sat on her knees beside the folded dress, head bowed, hoping that when Denna returned, her mistress would allow her to be close. She didn't know what Denna was doing, and she hadn't dared ask.

\--

Denna was a short way from the pine, on her knees in the dirt, forehead pressed to the ground, nettles poking her bare arms as they lay stretched out in front of her. She recited the devotion, praying it would give her strength. She recited it for two hours, as if she were at the People's Palace in one of the lavish devotion squares, bound there by the tolling of the bells.

Finally she rose, her muscles aching, and stretched, then walked back toward the wayward pine, intending to give Kahlan two hours with the Agiel. She flicked it up to her fist and marched in, stopping in her tracks at the scene before her, a gasp leaving her lips. Inside the pine, it looked like a cozy little house. Kahlan had gathered soft leaves to make a bed in one corner. She had dragged in a tree stump for a table, and another, larger log, upon which were laid out Denna's leathers. Perfectly, with no creases.

Kahlan had even apparently carved the center from a smaller log to make a bowl, which rested on the table, filled to the brim with berries. A rabbit roasted on a spit over the crackling fire, and her pet had folded the Confessor dress for her to sit on. Kahlan was on her knees beside the dress, with her head bowed, hands folded in her lap.

Denna let the Agiel hang from her wrist once again, and walked slowly to Kahlan, standing behind her. Her hands came to rest on the sides of her pet's face, and she pulled her fingers backward, through the long, dark curls. Kahlan's hair was so beautiful. "What have you done to me?" she whispered, putting her face close to the Confessor's ear.

Kahlan moaned at the gentle touch. "I am sorry for displeasing you earlier, Mistress. I never meant to. You have been so kind to me; I wanted to show my appreciation, and my reverence for your position of authority over me."

"I have not always been kind," Denna said, a bit sadly.

"You have been a wonderful Mistress," Kahlan said softly. "I beg your forgiveness for my insensitivity, to mention another's name in your presence."

"I forgive you," Denna sighed, feeling Kahlan relax under her hands. She stroked her fingertips over the Confessor's bare shoulders and down her arms as she sat beside her, the dress a welcome cushion as she settled, cross-legged, staring into the flames.

"Thank you, Mistress." Kahlan laid her head on Denna's shoulder when she sat. "Mistress, do you still feel the world would be better off without you?"

Denna sighed again, leaning her cheek on top of Kahlan's head. "I feel it less than I did before," she admitted, her voice quiet.

It was an improvement, Kahlan thought, and while the answer wasn't what she wanted to hear, it was preferable to a black-and-white 'yes'. "I'll work harder to change your mind, then," she said, resting a hand on her mistress's knee, drawing little circles with a fingertip.

Denna shifted, bringing one of her hands to cover Kahlan's and slide it under her dress. Her eyes closed at the warmth of her pet's hand on her thigh.

Kahlan's mouth fell open, her eyes closing along with Denna's, and she turned her face to press a kiss to her mistress's neck. She felt Denna let go of her hand, and she stroked the smooth skin beneath her palm, smiling as Denna drew her knees up to part her thighs wider. The encouragement was unmistakable, and Kahlan slid her hand higher, teasing the crease between hip and thigh.

Denna murmured appreciation, placing her hands behind herself for support, her breath quickening when her pet lifted the hem of her dress and settled it at her waist, exposing her to view, in the flickering firelight.

Kahlan enjoyed the sight very much, her eyes drawn to it, to the glistening wetness reflecting off the flames, fueling her desire. "Mistress Denna," she breathed in reverence, sliding her hand up over Denna's left hip and then back down to her inner thigh, fingertips crawling closer to the wetness they sought. She paused to savor the moment, the suspense, the split second time freezes when you're about to touch someone for the first time, and then her fingers were buried in slick heat.

Circling, pressing, stroking, sliding up and down the length of her mistress's folds, before finally parting them and entering her with gentle insistence.

Nothing had ever felt so good to Kahlan. Denna welcomed her, drew her in, enveloped her with warmth, muscles squeezing her slowly thrusting fingers and trying to hold them inside.

Denna gasped, and threw back her head, braid brushing the ground as the Confesor penetrated her. It had been a very long time since she had shared this part of herself with another, and the sheer physical pleasure was overwhelming.

Kahlan crooked an arm behind Denna's neck and carefully lowered her to the ground, moving atop her and rolling her hips into the movement of her fingers. She loved the way Denna moaned for her. "Oh, Mistress," she whispered, "I want to taste you. May I use my mouth on you, please?"

"Of course," Denna rasped, fisting a hand in Kahlan's hair and urging her down, until her pet's head was settled between her thighs. The first touch of the Confessor's warm, wet tongue made her hips jerk, and she purred as Kahlan's strong hands held her down.

Kahlan let out an indecent noise of approval, digging her thumbs into Denna's lower belly as she pushed her tongue inside. She groaned, going as deep as she could, loving the taste and feel. What had felt so good on her fingers felt even better on her tongue.

Denna squirmed and writhed beneath her, pulling her hair desperately as the feelings began rocketing toward a crescendo. She knew she wouldn't be able to finish without the Agiel, but she was Mord-Sith. She didn't need completion.

Kahlan tried her best, massaging with her tongue, scraping her teeth over Denna's clitoris, but her efforts only seemed to frustrate her mistress, so she slowed back down, just trying to give pleasure instead of bring release. When Denna let go of her hair and slammed both fists into the ground, she lifted her head and kissed Denna's belly button gently. "It's all right, Mistress," she soothed.

"It's not all right!" Denna raged, clutching at her own hair and pressing her elbows together in front of her face to hide it from Kahlan. "I am nothing but what they made me! I can't escape, even if I wanted to! I'm not even human, I'm this... this shell filled with anger and hatred and the ability to destroy ANYTHING I TOUCH! There's no room for anything else, I'll never be anything else!" she screamed.

"Mistress!" Kahlan said, aghast. "Don't say that!"

"I'm a slave as much as you are, except I'm worthless," Denna snarled.

Kahlan sat up. "Stop it, Mistress."

Denna refused. "Even as a whore, I'm worthless!"

"Denna!" Kahlan shouted, reaching forward to grab Denna by the collar and haul her onto her side, then to her stomach. She pushed the dress up around her hips again and brought her palm down with such ferocity that Denna actually cried out.

"Don't you dare call me th-ahh!" Denna cried out again, fingertips pressing into the dirt on either side of her head as the cry turned to a moan, and she lifted her backside into Kahlan's hand for the third strike. "What are you--" she gasped, pressing her eyes shut tight as a tear leaked out the corner of one. She groaned as Kahlan's hand connected, pushing up onto her hands and knees, back arched as she allowed the tide to carry her.

Another strike and Denna was shuddering, thighs pressing tightly together. Kahlan realized what was happening, and instantly slipped two fingers into her mistress from behind as she spanked her again.

Denna realized what was about to happen as well, just as it hit her, tearing a scream from her throat as she came without an Agiel for the first time since she was captured. Her entire body trembled, pleasure coursing through her, lighting her nerves on fire and making her tense until it finally passed, and she slumped to the ground, boneless and panting.

Kahlan only gave her a moment to herself before she lay down beside her, an arm and leg draped protectively over her mistress's back. "I told you not to say that, Mistress," she said, dropping a kiss to the back of Denna's shoulder. "It wasn't true. It isn't true. You're more than what they made you. You can break free of anything... and you can come without an Agiel in your... you know," she said, finally blushing.

"In my asshole," Denna said wryly, having recovered somewhat in the scant few seconds of silence before Kahlan had lain beside her.

Kahlan, still flushed, nodded.

Denna wiggled closer, if possible, a wicked gleam in her eye that Kahlan couldn't see. "Say it. The whole thing."

"Mistress," Kahlan complained, eyes going slightly wide. But before Denna had a chance to be disappointed in her, she continued. "You can break free of anything... and you can come without an Agiel in your..." she cleared her throat, her cheeks burning, "...your asshole." She whispered the last word. She had never used the term before.

"I can't believe you were able to make me do it," Denna said after another long bout of silence. "I also can't believe your presumtion."

"Mistress?"

"It is quite presumtuous for a pet to strike her mistress, unless expressly invited to do so."

"I was trying to help, Mistress."

Denna rolled them over so she was on all fours over Kahlan, looking down into her eyes, her braid falling over her shoulder, the tip tickling Kahlan's. "You also called me Denna. A grave transgression."

"I..." Kahlan didn't have a ready answer for that one, and it took her a moment to find the words. "I needed something shocking to get your attention," she finally said, effectively cowed. "I meant no disrespect. I would never disrespect you, Mistress." She blushed, closing her eyes. "I deserve to be punished, don't I?"

"Yes," Denna sighed. "I'll have to."

Kahlan nodded, her lower lip quivering. "I understand, Mistress."

Denna's heart wasn't in it. "Fetch me a vine, and strip the leaves off."

"A vine, Mistress? You mean a branch?"

"No, I mean a vine." She moved away so Kahlan could get up, and watched as her pet ducked out of the wayward pine to do her bidding. When she was alone, she ran her hands over her face and glanced up to the boughs above her head. "Dear spirits, what is to become of a Mord-Sith who refuses to use her Agiel on her own pet? I can scarcely tolerate this weakness in myself, and I am certain others won't. Please, give me strength."

But perhaps she hadn't been specific enough in what she meant by strength, because when Kahlan re-entered their sanctuary with a stripped vine and knelt in front of her, she could no more raise her Agiel than raise the dead.

Denna took the vine and held it above the fire, heating it without burning it. "Remove your dress and kneel there," she said, pointing to a spot on the ground that would best suit her purpose.

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said compliantly, slipping out of the dress and kneeling as she was asked.

"Remain as upright as you can, but place your hands on the log to steady yourself," Denna instructed, running her fingers over the vine's tip to test its heat. It was sufficiently hot, enough to burn but not to scar, and she moved behind Kahlan, swinging the vine a few times to get a feel for its arc before she lashed it through the air, cutting a burning line across Kahlan's back.

Kahlan sucked in a gasping breath at the searing pain, fingers digging into Denna's leathers laid out on the log she was braced against. "Thank you, Mistress," she managed to wheeze.

"For what?" Denna asked, eyebrow lifted in amusement and curiosity as she swung the heated whip again.

Kahlan cried out, clenching her teeth against the sting. "Thank you, Mistress," she said again.

"For what?" Denna insisted, pausing in the delivery of the next blow to wait for an answer.

"I don't know, I'm just grateful," Kahlan confessed quietly. "Maybe for not using your Agiel, maybe for punishing me, maybe for taking us away from Tamarang. I don't know, Mistress."

Denna found that satisfactory, and resumed the whipping until the tenth lash fell, and she tossed the vine aside. Kahlan thanked her after every stroke, and she liked hearing it. Her pet's back was a mess of red lines; she found them exquisite. The stark contrast between the welts and Kahlan's pale skin was startling. It made her heart race. "Kahlan," she hummed almost reverently, lowering her mouth to one of the marks, tracing it with her tongue.

Kahlan was trembling, her body doing its best to stay upright under the strain of the punishment, but when Denna's tongue found its way to her wounds, her arms gave out and she collapsed over the log. She frantically tried to push back up, mumbling apology after apology, but Denna's weight on her kept her where she was, and the soothing voice in her ear calmed her.

"Shh, Pet," Denna crooned, kissing all over the criss-crossed pattern. "It's all right. The meat is finished cooking, why don't you prepare our meals?"

"Ours, Mistress?" Kahlan asked, not quite daring to hope.

"Do you think I'm going to let a perfectly good slave starve?" Denna purred, sucking a kiss on the back of Kahlan's neck.

Kahlan blushed. "I thought I'd make a blackberry sauce."

"Sounds delicious." She moved so Kahlan could get up.

Still blushing at being called a slave instead of Denna's pet, Kahlan rose to her feet and brushed her hands off on her thighs, then set about crushing the berries until the bowl was half filled with their juice. She took the meat from the fire and smeared the makeshift sauce all over it, then paused, looking to Denna as she sucked her fingers clean. "There are no plates, Mistress. How do you wish to...?"

Denna sat primly on the tree stump doubling as a table, its surface no longer occupied by the bowl of berries, and patted her lap. "Sit on my lap and feed me," she said. "When I'm finished, I will feed you."

Kahlan thought that only Denna could make something like that sound so alluring. "Yes, Mistress," she said, a bit breathless. She carefully staked the spit in the dirt and sat down, enjoying the velvet of her mistress's dress on her naked backside. She pulled a piece of meat from the carcass and held it up to Denna's lips, watching with a shiver as a wet tongue snaked out to snatch the morsel. Then she found her fingertip enveloped and sucked on, and she groaned. She quickly took her hand away and tore off another piece of meat.

Denna tortured her after every bite, sucking and licking her finger in so many suggestive ways that she was soaking wet by the time her mistress had had enough to eat.

Denna plucked a piece of rabbit and held it to Kahlan's lips, whispering into her pet's ear as she chewed. "I can feel you through my dress, you know... you'll have to wash it later."

Kahlan groaned again. "Yes, Mistress," she mumbled after she swallowed. The meat was amazing. It was a good thing Denna was feeding her, or she would have been eating like a starving animal and getting herself into trouble.

When it was gone, Denna shoved her fingers into Kahlan's mouth and told her to clean them. She sucked eagerly, swiping her tongue across each one in turn, swallowing the traces of blackberry sauce.

"My pet is a good cook," Denna said idly when they were finished, stroking her fingertips up and down Kahlan's face. "And a good huntress. Are you ready for bed?"

"Yes, Mistress. I brought in leaves for you to have something soft to sleep on."

"We will share them," Denna said, rubbing her palm down the side of Kahlan's neck. "Put your dress on, and your boots. Even with the fire, it's going to be freezing tonight." She patted Kahlan's thigh to urge her up, then stood herself and stripped off the dress, beginning the laborious process of getting into her leathers. They would be much warmer, and she had been in a dress for too long, regardless.

She turned to find Kahlan dressed and watching her, and smirked. "Cinch the laces for me, Pet," she offered, turning away to allow Kahlan access.

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said eagerly, grateful that Denna wanted to share a bed with her. She pulled the laces tight and tied them all off, then rested her arms around her mistress's waist. "Done," she announced softly.

Denna rested her hands over Kahlan's for a silent moment, just enjoying the peaceful atmosphere, and then pulled away to head for the bed of leaves. "Bring the other dresses," she said as an afterthought, remembering Kahlan's suggestion about using them as blankets.

\--

Denna woke in the middle of the night to thrashing and moaning beside her. It took her a moment to become alert, while she lay listening to the sounds of the forest and watched her surroundings become clear. Another moan to her right and she was fully awake, turning to see what was bothering her pet. She gasped at the sight of Kahlan.

The Confessor was drenched in sweat, writhing and gripping the white dress on top of her, eyes glassy and unfocused.

"Confessor," she said, hurrying to throw another stick into the dying fire, to give her more light to see by. "Confessor!" she said again, shaking her, but Kahlan just moaned and twisted away from the touch. "Spirits, what..." Denna asked herself, scanning her mind for a possible cause of such a fever, especially brought on so quickly. Her eyes widened when a thought struck her, and she forced her pet to her stomach, tearing the back of the dress in two, her suspicion confirmed when she looked at the angry, open, oozing welts covering Kahlan's back. "Kahlan, did you bring me a snake vine?" Her voice pitched in disbelief.

The Mord-Sith forced herself to sit back and take a breath, and think. She had no way to heal a fever. She would find a lake or a stream, and lay Kahlan in it for a few moments to get the fever as low as possible, and then she would have to carry her pet to Kelton. But Kelton was at least another day's walk, and through mountains. She was strong, but she didn't like those odds. She would have to go back to Tamarang. That was only three hours walk. Less if she moved at a quicker pace than they had last night, plus she could get a horse there. And they had crossed a stream on the way here.

Decision made, she slipped her Agiel into the holster at her belt and lifted Kahlan into her arms, over one shoulder so that the infected wounds on her back would have fresh air.

\--

Denna kept up a grueling pace, sweating in the warm leathers despite the cool of the pre-dawn air. After an hour, she spotted the stream and carefully crouched, laying the unconscious Confessor in the icy cold water.

Kahlan gasped awake, arms flailing out for purchase on something to keep her from drowning. She was not lucid enough to realize the water was three inches deep.

"You're all right, you're going to be fine," Denna soothed her, brushing the matted hair back from her forehead and pressing a lingering kiss there instead. She had to hold Kahlan down with one arm, and cover her mouth with a hand, because her pet wouldn't stop struggling and screaming. Denna didn't even want to imagine what nightmare she was in the grips of. "You're in a fever," she tried to explain. "The cold water might help. I'm taking you to get help. Just relax."

Mercifully, Kahlan passed out again after a few more seconds, and Denna sagged with relief.

\--

They reached Tamarang in another hour and a half, and Denna was nearly ready to pass out herself. She set Kahlan out of sight, and snuck toward the stables, Agiel drawn just in case.

She only had to take out one stable boy, and she had a horse. A beast of a stallion, black as night, looking like he could run forever.

She tacked him in under five minutes and rode back to Kahlan, hopping down to lift her pet and drape her over the saddle. Kahlan didn't wake, but she groaned in her sleep, and as Denna climbed into the saddle behind her, she noticed the wounds beginning to fester again.

One hand on Kahlan's lower back to hold her steady, the Mord-Sith called the horse to a gallop, and she was grateful to find that he was as fast as she'd thought he would be.

Denna stopped once to let the horse rest and drink some water, and they reached Kelton in just over five hours. Kahlan seemed to be getting worse - her unconsciousness was fitful and she screamed in her sleep.

Leaving the stallion with the first person she saw, and asking only for directions to a healer in return, she was told where to go. She carried Kahlan, refusing the man's help, and kicked open the door, startling everyone in the small room into inaction. They stared at her as she laid Kahlan on her stomach on an empty cot, and she addressed them furiously. "Well! Can't you see she needs help! Which one of you is the healer! Start helping her!"

A short, frail elderly man came rushing through a curtain at the back of the room. "I'm the healer, what's all this fuss?" he asked sternly, stopping in his tracks to see a Mord-Sith in his establishment. The color left his face, but to his credit, he was still able to speak. "What's the problem, Miss?"

Denna's nostrils flared with the effort to keep her temper. "If that isn't obvious, then you're no healer," she hissed.

The man's eyes fell upon Kahlan, and he gasped, putting a hand to his forehead as he approached the cot she lay on. "Dear spirits," he whispered, clearly flustered and thinking too fast. "Gamlin!" he called into the back. "Bring me my herbs! And a basin of water! And some rags! Quickly!"

Denna stormed into the back to see that it was done quickly indeed. The healer cried out for her to stop, but wasn't fool enough to make a move against her. "Herbs!" she snapped at the apprentice, suddenly clumsy in her presence. "Where are they!"

He pointed with a shaking finger, but shook his head. "Y-y-you get the basin and rags, y-you don't know what herbs to bring." He pointed elsewhere, toward the basins, then to a pile of rags. "I-I-I'll get the herbs."

"Be quick about it!" She strode to the pile of rags and gathered up a handful, tucking them under her arm, then lifted one of the heavy basins without complaint and took it to the healer, wild eyes trained on the curtain in case the apprentice decided to dally.

The healer turned to Denna. "I'll also need a mortar and pestle, Miss." Despite his fear of the Mord-Sith, he was committed to his craft, and genuinely desired to help all those in need.

As the apprentice stumbled out with a tray of jars and pouches, Denna grabbed it. "Now go get a mortar and pestle," she snapped, and he hurried off again.

While he waited, the healer doused several rags and spread them out over the wounds on Kahlan's back. "I need to know in order to properly tend her. You whipped her with a snake vine?" he asked carefully.

"I didn't know it was a snake vine!" Denna shouted defensively, making everyone in the room shrink away from her as well as they could.

"I am a healer; you will find no judgment here, only a need for facts in order to do my job," he said calmly. "How long ago was this?"

Denna scrubbed her hands over her face, trying to count the hours. "I don't know. Last night, before bed... she woke me in the middle of the night with her thrashing, and I found her in a fever."

"Oh, dear," the healer murmured to himself, glancing up as his apprentice appeared beside him. "Thank you, Gamlin." He took the requested items and set them on the tray, then poured the contents of two of the pouches and a pinch from one of the jars into the stone bowl. He addressed Denna. "Crush the herbs into dust, then add a spoonful of water and mix it to a paste."

Without speaking, she set to her task, accomplishing it in mere minutes. Only then did she ask what she wanted. "What did you mean, 'oh dear'?"

The healer removed the rags from Kahlan's back and dipped his fingers into the paste, smearing it carefully over every inch of each wound, rinsing his hands frequently in the water basin. "I would have liked to have gotten to her sooner," he finally answered the Mord-Sith's question.

Denna shot to her feet and began pacing, in order to avoid strangling the man. "I got here as fast as I could! Now fix her!"

"Miss, please, your agitation will not help her," the healer said gently, his hands trembling at speaking to a Mord-Sith in such a manner. He finished spreading the paste and rinsed his hands again, then dried them on a fresh cloth. "I'm doing what I can. The infection rages in her body; there's no way to tell if it's already reached her blood."

Denna felt herself becoming unhinged. "What do you mean? What does that mean! Fix her!" She drew her Agiel.

Terrified, the man scrambled around to the other side of the bed, holding his hands up. "Miss! I'm trying to help her! I've done all I can!"

With a howling scream of rage, Denna slammed her Agiel into the wooden floor, panic rising up through her, overwhelming her senses. "Fix her!" she wailed. She didn't know what else to do. She turned away when she realized her face was wet with tears.

"Without magic, there is nothing else I can do," the man said, honest even though he feared for his life at the statement.

"Then use magic," Denna said, angrily swiping the back of her arm over her cheeks to dry the tears, still facing away from everyone in the room.

"I have no magic myself," the healer continued, shocked that she would allow magic to touch her slave. Mord-Sith reputedly abhorred magic, and could command it against its user. "There is a wizard just out of town to the west, before the Callisidrin river."

"I'll need a horse."

"The stables are two doors down, Miss. You can also find a guide there."

"You stay by her side until I return," she demanded flatly.

"I have other patients to tend to as well, Miss."

"Not if I kill them," she said, still without turning around, but the threat was issued and received with just as much sincerity as if she were facing him.

"I understand, Miss. I will not leave her side."

Denna did not need to voice the fact that if Kahlan were to die before she returned, the healer, his apprentice, and all the other patients would die as well.

The idea of Kahlan dying sent such a pain through her gut that she almost faltered on her feet. She left before she showed any further weakness.

\--

Denna tried to refuse the offer of a guide, but the man was a good man, and insisted upon escorting her, despite her threats to kill him. He told her she'd never find the wizard's house without his help. She said she had no money, and he waved her off. "The Mother Confessor has always taken care of my people," he said, surprising her.

"How did you..." she asked as they took off at a run to the west.

"Word travels fast. My son saw you ridin' in. Even without that white dress of hers, she's recognizable. No one else in the Midlands has hair like that."

They rode in silence for the next half hour, and the man finally broke it as they approached a bend in the road.

"Mind if I ask... why are you goin' so far out of your way to help the Mother Confessor? The Mord-Sith aren't exactly known for their fondness of Confessors. Is she a friend?"

"A friend?" Denna spat as they turned right, heading off the trail. "She is not my friend, she is my slave!"

Her guide, for his part, didn't even flinch. "Must be a good slave, for you to go to all this trouble."

"I do mind if you ask!" Denna thundered, drawing her Agiel as she kicked her horse to keep up with the man. "Keep your mouth shut, you filthy peasant."

"You whipped her with a snake vine?" the man pressed anyway.

Denna's fingers curled tighter around the hilt of her Agiel. "You would do well to listen when I tell you to keep your mouth shut," she said darkly, pulling her horse up beside him and threatening to graze him with her weapon.

"Little girl," he said lazily with a chuckle, "if you presume to think that Agiel will scare me into submission, you'd best think again. Threaten me one more time and when we get back to town with your wizard, mark my words, I will take you across my knee and tan your stubborn hide."

Eyes wide, Denna jabbed the Agiel into his gut, but to her utter horror, he didn't even react. Not a flinch, not a yell, even his tunic didn't give way to the magic. He simply rode faster, so they would have less time to interact.

She would dwell on it later. Right now her only concern was Kahlan.

\--

It turned out her guide was right. She would never have found the house without someone who'd been there before. She was surprised when she saw the wizard - she'd expected an old man, but lounging on a cot in the front garden was the opposite of that - a man younger than she herself. Hardly more than a boy.

"This is your wizard?" she hissed at the guide. "He's barely out of diapers!"

The guide chucked and extended an arm as he bowed his head. "Wizard Klaven," he introduced the reclining young man.

"We've no time for pleasantries," Denna snapped. "Come with us, wizard."

Klaven raised an eyebrow, folding his arms across his chest. "I do not bow to the Mord-Sith."

Before Denna had a chance to get off her horse, her guide spoke. "The Mother Confessor needs your help. She's very sick with fever."

The wizard was on his feet before the other man had finished speaking, and Denna watched with mild fascination as he swung up into the other man's saddle behind him.

And without another word, they were off.

\--

Roughly forty minutes later they skidded to a stop outside the healer's building, and Denna leapt down, charging inside and to her pet's side. There seemed to be no change. Kahlan was still unconscious, and writhing in discomfort. She barely heard the door open and close behind her; was not aware of the two sets of footsteps following her inside, until a hand closed around the scruff of her neck and hauled her backward.

"You and I have some unfinished business, little lady, and Wizard Klaven sure doesn't need you in here while he works. You're comin' with me."

"Unhand me!" she shouted, struggling mightily, but he dragged her out the door and down to the stables, withstanding her pounding fists and kicking boots. "You are signing your death warrant!" she hissed.

"You watch your mouth, you nasty little thing. There's no cause for you to be so rude, especially when people're helpin' you."

She fought him tooth and nail, frustrated because her Agiel was useless against him, and while she was strong, she was no match for his brute strength, and he ended up tanning her hide just like he'd promised; she didn't think she would want to sit for several hours, if not days.

The first chance she got, she snatched up a knife and slit his throat, letting out a long, satisfied sigh. Magic might not have worked against him, but steel certainly did.

Nursing her pride, she slipped back into the healer's establishment just as the wizard appeared to be finishing his work. "How is she?" she demanded hotly.

Klaven stepped back and slid his hands into the opposite sleeves of his robes, as wizards often did. He looked weak on his feet. "I drew the fever out of her. She will live."

The healer helped the wizard to an empty cot while he recovered his strength - to heal a person of sickness, a wizard had to take the sickness into himself for a time.

Kahlan's eyes fluttered open, and the first thing she saw was Denna's bright blue eyes smiling down at her. The second thing she noticed was blood all over Denna's leathers. The third thing she noticed was strange surroundings. "W..." she tried to speak but her throat was parched, and the sound came out raspy and choked.

"Get her some water," Denna snapped to no one in particular.

A few seconds later, Gamlin, the apprentice, was holding a waterskin to Kahlan's lips, helping her drink.

The water felt so good on her dry throat that Kahlan moaned in appreciation. As her head became clearer, she noticed more things. A throbbing, white-hot pain in her back. Healer Aldin. They must be in Kelton. "How... did we get here?" she asked quietly, reaching for Denna's hand. She needed something to anchor her at the moment.

Denna sat at her side and took her outstretched hand, squeezing it affectionately. "I borrowed a horse and rode you here... you were in a fever, and unconscious."

"Are we in Kelton?" Kahlan's voice was still cracked, but becoming more solid the more water she drank.

"Yes," Denna nodded, her thumb rubbing absently over the back of Kahlan's hand. "But we need to leave as soon as you're able," she whispered urgently.

As the wizard recovered, he too became more aware of his surroundings. "Where did that blood come from?" he asked, accusation clear in his words.

"Wizard Klaven?" Kahlan asked, pushing herself carefully to a sitting position. The room swam a bit, and her head ached, but she was well enough to travel. "Did you heal me?"

"I did," he said gruffly. "And now I want to know where that blood on your Mord-Sith came from. Her leather was clean when Stamuel took her to the stables."

Hackles rising, Denna straightened and turned to face him. "He beat me, so I slit his throat," she growled, ignoring the stunned gasps from everyone in the room besides herself and the wizard. "Pet, are you able to travel?"

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan whispered, having stiffened at the news of her mistress being mistreated like that.

Eyes darting wildly about, scanning for any hint of danger, Denna pulled Kahlan to her feet. "Stay behind me and back toward the door," she instructed quietly, and then more loudly, to the room at large, she said in warning, "do not try to stop me, or suffer the same fate." She knew the wizard would not attempt to use his magic against her - he wasn't stupid. But more than one flying knife at a time, she would have difficulty deflecting.

"Mother Confessor!" Klaven said disapprovingly, rising to his feet but making no move toward them. "You would allow yourself to be in servitude to this murderous bitch?"

Kahlan's eyes narrowed. "Do not speak of that which you do not understand," she said slowly, pointedly, with just as much disapproval in her voice as he. "Thank you for healing me, but do not presume to know what I would or would not allow."

"I told you, he beat me!" Denna snarled at the wizard, for some reason concerned that he believe her. That Kahlan believe her. "His death was not unprovoked!"

"You lie like the vile creature you were created to be," the wizard snarled back. "If you can prove your allegations, we will let you leave without pursuit."

No one expected Denna to be able to prove it.

Without pause, she turned and undid her belt, then lowered her pants, unmindful of the shocked murmurs around the room.

"Mistress!" Kahlan cried softly, dropping to her knees and reaching out toward her mistress's reddened and bruising skin.

"Not now," Denna told her, and pulled her pants into place again, turning back to the wizard. "I assume that is sufficient proof? You will not pursue us?"

Wizard Klaven had nothing to say, with his jaw slackened as it was, so Denna took that as a yes. She urged Kahlan to her feet and pulled her out the door, heading for the stables to borrow another horse.

They found Stamuel's son kicking at his father's body. Kahlan held her breath. "Jason?" she asked softly.

The boy looked up with a grin. "D'jou do this?" he asked, giving the body another kick.

The Confessor bit her lip and shook her head.

"I did," Denna spoke up, standing taller, daring the boy to object.

He bowed to her. "Thank y'Ma'am. It's 'bout time somebody did."

Denna was a bit awestruck, and simply gave him a terse nod.

"What do you mean?" Kahlan asked, ever curious.

"Well, Mother Confessor," Jason said, scratching his head with one fingertip, just above his left ear. His short, tousled hair moved up and down with the action. "Folks all thought he was so great, but they ain't live with 'im. He was a short-tempered bastard if there ever was one. Beat on m'little sisters all the time. Ain't nobody believed me when I tole'm." He turned to Denna. "Thank y'again, Ma'am. If there's anything I c'n get for ya, y'just name it."

"As a matter of fact," Denna said, her expression slowly sliding from disbelief to a sly smirk. "We could use a horse with some tack, saddlebags, and a wooden spoon."

Kahlan paled.

"A wooden spoon? What'cha need that for?" Jason asked, brow scrunched up.

"Discipline," Denna said smoothly.

Kahlan was blushing so hard now, there was no way Jason wouldn't know who was to be disciplined.

The boy's face lit up and he let out a low whistle. "Yes Ma'am," he said, giving her another bow as he went off to collect the items, a smile so bright on his face that it showed his dimples.

"Mistress," Kahlan whined softly when they were alone, moving close to Denna and hiding her face in her mistress's neck.

Denna chuckled and held Kahlan to her, kissing the side of her head. "You gave me quite a scare, there, Confessor," she murmured into tangled dark hair.

"I'm sorry, Mistress, I--"

"Shh, not now, child," Denna scolded gently. "You have something grave to answer for, but not now." The day had been harrowing, and all Denna wanted to do was get back to the wayward pine and sleep in the soft bed of leaves in the cozy, personalized sanctuary.

Jason returned with a horse on lead, already saddled, with spacious saddlebags. He draped the reins over a post and tied them off, then went back inside to fetch the other item the lady requested. When he came back out, he paused, standing in front of them, clutching the spoon in his fist. "Y'know, Ma'am... one time, the Mother Confessor came through town, and she stole a flagon of ale from my pa."

Denna's eyebrows lifted. "Is that so?" she said, her smirk returning as she put her hands on Kahlan's shoulders and turned her around, then bent to lift the Confessor's dress until her backside was exposed to the cool evening air... and to the teenaged boy wielding a wooden spoon.

Absolutely mortified, Kahlan couldn't even find words to explain that action, and merely gave a cry of anguish, pressing her face further into her mistress's neck. She could not believe this was happening.

"One smack," Denna said, holding up a finger. "One, boy, I mean it."

"Yes Ma'am," Jason said, an eager smile on his face that reached all the way to his sparkling eyes. "No offense, Mother Confessor, but you always were kinda snooty." He took careful aim, tongue poking out between his teeth as he concentrated, and finally let her have a good hard smack in the middle of her bottom with the spoon.

Kahlan shrieked miserably at the swat, tempted to stomp her foot in childish protest, but she refrained. She wanted to tell him she wasn't snooty, that she had simply been bound by duty, and had not had the luxury of being friendly at the time. And, the flagon of ale was the only thing available to disinfect a gaping leg wound of a beggar who'd been shot through with an arrow.

Denna let Kahlan's dress drop and held her hand out for the spoon. Jason laid it carefully across her palm, still grinning. "Don't spare the rod now, Ma'am," he said.

"I assure you, my child is not spoiled," Denna said, her eyes shining as she grinned back at him.

Kahlan was sure she was going to die at any moment. And her back hurt. And she still had a little headache.

"Thank the young man for his discipline, Pet," Denna purred, kissing the shell of Kahlan's ear, "and then we must be on our way."

At that, she gasped in horror. "Mistress, please," she begged in a whisper. "I'm sorry."

Denna gripped her by the hair and forced their eyes to meet. The frown on her face melted away her pet's resistance, and Kahlan slumped her shoulders, turning around, clearly not looking at the boy.

"Thank you, Jason, for the discipline," she said hollowly but respectfully, her cheeks flaming as hot as they ever had.

"Why, you're welcome, Mother Confessor," Jason said with a nod.

Denna eyed the boy's obvious excitement. "Get," she said, inclining her head toward the door. "Before you're next."

"Ma'am," he said, bowing to her once again and scurrying into his home, which ironically enough, had been made safe by a Mord-Sith.

\--

Kahlan rode behind Denna, to keep her healing wounds from rubbing against stiff leather.

No longer in a hurry, they rode at a leisurely pace, in companionable silence, and reached the wayward pine in the middle of the night.

"Go inside and start a fire," Denna instructed once their boots hit the ground, and Kahlan nodded, moving to obey. The Mord-Sith set about tending the horse, taking off her saddle and blanket, tossing the saddlebags toward the entrance to the pine. She removed the bridle, leaving the halter on with the lead rope tied to a tree branch, low enough to let the mare graze.

Even at the slower pace, the beast was still sweaty, and Denna found a brush in the saddlebags, scratching the mare's nose as she brushed her.

That done, she joined Kahlan inside, going straight for the bed and all but collapsing down onto the soft leaves. "Come here," she said, her voice already thickening with the thought of sleep.

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said softly, crawling over and lying with Denna, sighing at the comforting feeling of being in her arms. "I'm so sorry I made you worry," she started, but Denna shushed her with a kiss.

"I don't want to talk about it right now, I want to sleep."

"Of course, Mistress. Good night."

\--

Thankfully, they both slept through the night without incident... if one did not count Denna's nightmare, from which she woke screaming and was soothed back to sleep by Kahlan's gentle singing. Denna did not count it.

In the morning, she woke to the smell of cooking meat, and as if on cue, her stomach growled. "Kahlan?" she asked groggily, feeling the empty spot beside her.

"Yes, Mistress?" Kahlan moved to her side, kneeling down.

"Just checking," Denna murmured. "What are you cooking?"

"I caught a pheasant, Mistress, and picked some more berries."

Denna sighed contently and slowly sat up with a yawn and a stretch, flinching slightly at the weight on her backside. "Is the bird almost ready?"

"No, Mistress, I only just set it over the fire. It has a half hour to go, at least. Are you hungry, would you like me to pick you some extra berries while the meat is cooking?"

"Thank you, that is thoughtful of you, Pet, but no. I can wait."

A moment of silence passed between them and Denna sighed, getting to her feet and pacing the small shelter. 

"Why did you bring me a snake vine?" she asked, deliberately not looking at Kahlan.

Kahlan remained on her knees and lowered her eyes to the ground. "It was all I could find, Mistress."

"And you didn't think to tell me it was a snake vine?"

"You wanted to whip me, Mistress. I wished for you to have what you wanted. I feared that you would be disappointed if I told you it was a snake vine." She gave a brief pause, and then, "it hurts to have you disappointed with me, Mistress Denna."

"But it was a snake vine!" Denna continued her harried pacing. "Surely you aren't stupid, Kahlan. You knew what would happen. You were purposely deceitful, thereby putting yourself in mortal danger! Had you misplaced your senses!"

Kahlan fidgeted, shifting her weight from one knee to the other, brushing her hair back over her shoulder and maintaining her downward gaze. "I thought it would be innocuous without its buds," she admitted. "I was foolish, Mistress. Please forgive me."

"Do you realize," Denna said, finally stopping in front of Kahlan and forcing her to look up at her with an insistent finger beneath her chin, "that you nearly died?"

"I didn't think--"

"Answer my question!" She slapped Kahlan's face.

Tears stinging her eyes, Kahlan nodded in answer. "Yes, Mistress, I do realize."

"Do you realize... that you committed the very offense you chastised me for committing yesterday?"

Kahlan's jaw worked as she tried to compute that fact, and her stomach twisted nervously as it became clear. "Oh," she confessed, closing her eyes and taking a slow breath in through her nose. "I had not realized that until just now, Mistress." She had been so distraught over Denna's comments the previous day... how her Mistress had said the world would be better off without her... And now, she had put the world in a position to be without her.

"Do you realize that I almost lost you!" Denna shouted, her lip quivering with the effort to force down emotion. She grabbed Kahlan by the hair and squeezed until the Confessor cried out. "The one thing in this world I care about, and you see fit to risk taking it from me to avoid disappointment? How DARE you!" she screamed.

One thing stood out glaringly to Kahlan - Denna had just admitted to caring about her. She thought she might lose her breath with the joy that revelation brought her. No matter what punishment she had to endure, it would be worth it, for those nine words. She had never expected to hear them. Never expected them to be true, let alone spoken aloud. "I beg your forgiveness, Mistress," she whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared up at her captor, her liberator, her... mate. "I will never be so foolish again, to gamble with my life before seeking your approval to do so. Please, punish me severely, so my pain may mark this lesson."

Denna eyed her suspiciously, but ended up deciding she was sincere, and melted a bit under the heartfelt pleas for punishment and forgiveness. "No," she said at last. "Your punishment will be that there is none. You will live with the guilt of hur--of disappointing me, of knowing you have done wrong and will not be punished to absolve your sins."

Once upon a time, Kahlan would have burst into hysterical laughter at that, finding it incredibly desirable - but once upon a time, Denna would have known that and never offered such a thing. Now, the Confessor wilted, her tears dissolving into sobs at the lack of penance. At this point in their dynamic, it was the worst thing Denna could have done to her. "Please!" she begged, clutching at Denna's thighs. "Use your Agiel, Mistress, please... Or, or the wooden spoon... spank me for being naughty, like a bad little girl, please, Mistress!"

Denna had not expected quite such a desperate reaction, and her chest tightened as she questioned her decision. "Do you really want to be punished, Pet?" she breathed, her heart rate picking up speed and her breath catching at the alternative she was about to offer.

"Yes," Kahlan sobbed. "Yes, Mistress, please..."

Denna drew her Agiel, holding it in front of Kahlan's eyes, to make sure her meaning was absolutely clear. "If you truly are repentant, and wish to appease me, then you will lie back, now, and spread your legs for my Agiel."

Kahlan's breath left her, squeezed out of her lungs by an unseen vise. She did not know if she could take the pain, but she knew in her heart that without a punishment, she would never forgive herself for hurting Denna. She forced air into her lungs, wiping her tears away as she lay on the ground, her entire body shaking almost violently, and spread her legs.

Denna moved over her on all fours, then used the hand with the Agiel to raise Kahlan's dress, bunching the hem up around her hips. "As vehemently opposed as you are to losing me, I am equally as opposed to losing you," she said, running the tip of the Agiel lightly up Kahlan's thigh.

Kahlan had been punished there before, and while it hurt, she knew what to expect, and gritted her teeth against the pain. "Yes, Mistress," she ground out.

Denna poised the Agiel between Kahlan's legs, and with one smooth thrust, seated it fully inside her.

For a split second there was nothing, a void of expectations, and then Kahlan's mouth opened, a scream ripped from her throat the like of which Denna had never heard from her. But she didn't try to squirm away. The Agiel shrieked in Denna's ears, its angry thrumming radiating up her arm as she held it inside her pet.

Kahlan screamed, and clutched fistfuls of dirt, feeling everything. Everything the Agiel had to offer, from the inside out. She felt as though she were being torn apart. Every muscle crackled with jolts of electricity, making them tighten and stretch and burn until she silently begged for unconsciousness.

Denna withdrew the Agiel just before the point it would render Kahlan barren, and shoved it back into its holster. "Do you feel punished, Pet?" she asked bitterly.

Kahlan was still screaming, but as Denna's question pierced her wails, she slowly came to realize that the Agiel was gone, even though the pain remained. It began to fade, but not quickly enough for her liking. "Y-y-yes, Mistress," she sobbed, feeling blood seep out of her now that the Agiel no longer blocked its path of retreat. As the pain subsided, she worried about the blood. She didn't know why it mattered; it wasn't like she would have children, anyway. Not in the life she now had. Maybe once upon a time, she would have been given the gift of bearing a child to Richard, had they ever found a way around her power, but no, not in this life. Her tears came to a stop, her mood forlorn; she tried to stop wishing for a life that could have been. The guilt at thinking of a life without her mistress began to eat at her, and she closed her eyes.

Denna ripped off a piece of Kahlan's borrowed dress and gently wiped away the blood, then tossed the rag into the fire. She knew what Kahlan was thinking. The Confessor was never good at hiding her thoughts; Denna could always read her face like a book. "You are still fertile." At Kahlan's surprised expression, she offered, "I may one day desire a son."

Kahlan gasped. "Mistress, any child I bear would be a Confessor."

Denna laughed. "Even in Remedial Wizards and Confessors, they teach that."

Kahlan was aware that Denna was making a joke, but she could not find it in her to think it funny. "Mistress, all male Confessors must be killed at birth. I cannot bear you a son, the world would fall to ruin. He would confess you as soon as he was able, and it would kill you."

Denna frowned. "Why?" She had not been taught the dangers of male Confessors. She supposed, now that she thought about it, the subject had never been relevant. Male Confessors were rare in the extreme.

"They lack the compassion necessary to temper their ambition, and use their power freely and unscrupulously."

"That could be to my advantage," Denna said with a smirk, but the look on Kahlan's face sobered her. "All right. A daughter, then," she said with a dismissive wave of her hand.

Tears came to Kahlan's eyes again. "You would wish a daughter, with me?" she asked, her voice so soft she could barely hear her own question.

"I said I may," Denna corrected her, "not that I do."

Kahlan swallowed past the lump in her throat and nodded. "Yes, Mistress."

Denna faltered, and upon noticing that Kahlan's dress was still bunched around her waist, she tenderly lowered it to cover her legs, and stroked a hand over her pet's knees. "Kahlan, I--" She stopped, shook her head, turned her face away.

Kahlan didn't say anything, just waited... but she loved it so much when Denna called her 'Kahlan'.

"Let's go to Westland," Denna continued suddenly, turning back to gauge Kahlan's reaction. "Westland is far away from--" This time she stopped talking because she heard approaching hoofbeats, and jumped to her feet. "Stay behind me," she ordered, moving to the entrance of their pine and sticking her head out.

As if Darken Rahl had read her mind, he had apparently sent the Dragon Corps after them. The timing was uncanny. She scanned the faces for any she knew among the half dozen riders, sat tall in their saddles, wearing the crest of Rahl on their burgundy uniforms. She knew none of them.

The one in charge, evidently, put fist to heart in salute. "Mistress Denna, we have been sent by Master Rahl to escort you and your new slave to the People's Palace."

A sense of impending doom twisting her gut, Denna merely put on a false smile and nodded, returning the salute. "We will be with you as soon as we pack my things." She ducked back into the pine, her hands shaking as she moved to Kahlan and gripped the side of her face, kissing her, a sob almost escaping. "We must go to the People's Palace," she said, though she knew Kahlan had heard the conversation. "Put on the Confessor dress, it's cold outside, and I've ripped the one you're wearing. You can leave it behind."

Kahlan nodded, worried more because of Denna's reaction to the news than because she was potentially going to meet Darken Rahl. Or other Mord-Sith.

"I can't let you have your daggers," Denna said almost as an afterthought, and pulled them from Kahlan's boots, hooking them behind her belt.

Kahlan nodded again and changed quickly, leaving the purple dress on the ground. "Do you want the green dress, Mistress?"

"No," Denna shook her head. "Just bring my spoon. You may put it in the saddlebags when we get outside. Don't look at any of the men... and don't speak unless I ask you a direct question, is that clear?"

"Yes, Mistress," Kahlan said, her anxiety increasing with every word out of Denna's mouth.

"Walk a pace behind me and to my left," Denna instructed further as she pushed her way out of the pine once more, heading for their horse to tack her up.

Kahlan stood behind with her eyes on the ground while her mistress saddled their horse, and then she dropped the spoon into the saddlebag when Denna held it open.

The Mord-Sith was about to help Kahlan up onto the horse when she heard the thud of boots hitting dirt and turned. One of the men approached them.

"That's a right pretty slave you've got there," he said, leering at Kahlan in a way Denna decidedly did not like. "I think I'd like to enjoy her a bit before we set off." He reached out to heft one of Kahlan's breasts in his palm, lips splitting into a lecherous grin showing rotten teeth.

Denna's Agiel slammed into his chest before he knew what hit him, and he slumped to the ground, dead.

Eyes wild, she glanced around at the other men, her chest heaving with rage. "Do any of you want to touch my property!" she thundered, her voice echoing in the frigid air, startling a bird from its nest overhead.

The forest was silent, and all five remaining members of the elite Dragon Corps of D'Hara shook their heads mutely.

Kahlan stood, stunned, frankly amazed that Denna had just killed a man for simply touching her. Strangely, it warmed her chest. It made her want to move closer, to embrace her mistress, kiss her, but Kahlan knew better. Not now.

"Even the commander of the First File does not take liberties with the property of a Mord-Sith," Denna snarled, looking at each of the men in turn. "I hope I have made myself clear." She turned and helped Kahlan onto the horse, then swung up into the saddle behind her. She slowed her horse to ride at the back of the group, not trusting any of them to be behind her.

\--

They cut east, crossed the Kern river, then headed south along the base of the Loreine mountain range to a pass, none of them keen on crossing the mountains directly.

When they were almost across Azrith Plains, Denna let her horse fall further behind to speak to Kahlan in private. "I will do my best to keep you away from Rahl... but if he sees through my excuses, he may call you to his bed, and there will be nothing I can do," she said quietly. "I'm sorry."

Kahlan stiffened, relaxing when a gentle hand stroked her stomach, and the fact that Denna would seek to protect her from Rahl brought her joy. "Thank you, Mistress," she whispered. "I pray you will succeed in keeping me from him, but if you do not, I promise to do my best to make you proud, and not shame you to your Master Rahl."

Denna sighed, dropping her forehead against the back of Kahlan's neck and breathing deeply. "Thank you, Pet." She feared what would happen when they reached the palace. She did not show her fear on her face.

\--

"Denna, my dear, welcome home," Darken Rahl said with a sweeping arm gesture and an insincere bow.

"My Lord, how good to see you," Denna lied smoothly, returning the bow, taking up his hand and bringing it to her lips, laying a falsely reverent kiss to his knuckles. "My travels have made me weary, I trust you won't mind if I retire to my quarters and clean up a bit." It wasn't a request.

Darken Rahl was no fool; he was under no illusion that she was asking permission. "Of course, my dear. Will you join us by dinner?"

"Perhaps." She allowed a wicked smile to crease her lips. "Thank you for the escort home." And with that, she spun and strode off.

Kahlan followed a pace behind and to the left, as she had been earlier instructed. She kept her eyes trained on the ground. Every footstep echoed in her ears like metal to a gong, she was so aware of every sound. Her heart hammered in her chest, pounding against her ribcage almost painfully. She held her breath.

Finally, they reached Denna's quarters, and she let out the breath she'd been holding as Denna shut the heavy wooden door and bolted it.

Shaking, Denna leaned her forehead against the door, closing her eyes against the onslaught of emotion that plagued her.

Kahlan wanted to say something, but didn't think she should. Instead, she lowered herself to the stone floor, kneeling at Denna's feet.

Denna stayed where she was, but dropped a hand to rest lightly on the top of Kahlan's head. "I don't want to go to dinner."

Kahlan's chest constricted. More than anything, her mistress sounded like a scared little girl. "I... could misbehave, and you'd have to punish me," she offered, unsure of what else to say. "We couldn't go to dinner, then."

The hand on Kahlan's head began stroking her hair. "No," the Mord-Sith whispered. "But thank you. Come, lay with me." She urged Kahlan to her feet and led her to the simple yet elegant bed on the other side of the room, the mattress draped with black silks. They lay down together and Denna pulled Kahlan protectively into her arms. "Spirits, I don't want to share you," she breathed, pressing her lips to Kahlan's forehead. And Creator help me, I don't want Rahl to hurt you.

\--

Dinner was a grand affair, in honor of Denna's return to the People's Palace. There were wines and cheeses in abundance, breads and pastas, fruits and vegetables, water, juice, ale - everything one could possibly want to eat, with the exception of meat. Kahlan noticed there were no meats among the lavish expanse of hors d'ouevres, nor among the main courses. She found it curious, but didn't even let on that she'd been looking - she sat on the floor at Denna's feet with her eyes to the ground, and was given a bowl of porridge to eat while she was down there. She wished desperately that she could be alone with Denna, somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Denna made absolutely certain to show no care toward Kahlan at all. She chatted amicably with the other Mord-Sith, the D'Haran officers, and with Lord Rahl himself. When she felt she had spent an appropriate amount of time wining and dining, and after several others had already left the table, she stood with a stretch. "Please forgive my eagerness to be away, but I am tired, and my pet needs a few hours of training before bed. Thank you all for the lovely feast." She put a sparkle in her eye as she winked at Lord Rahl, then set her napkin on the table and tugged on Kahlan's hair sharply. "Get up."

"Yes, Mistress Denna," Kahlan said obediently, quick to rise to her feet and follow a pace behind Denna back to her quarters.

"Denna," Darken called out when they were to the doorway leading into the main corridor.

Denna stopped, turned, raising one eyebrow in question. "Yes, my Lord?"

"Tomorrow, I want to see how well you've trained her."

Sick to her stomach, Denna forced a wicked smirk and drawled out her answer in an almost seductive manner. "Oh yes, my Lord. You will be pleased." She set her expression to stone as she turned back to Kahlan. "Come," she barked, dragging her down the hall by the hair.

When they were again safely locked in Denna's quarters, the Mord-Sith gave an anguished cry and pulled Kahlan tightly to her, holding her pet's head at her breast.

Kahlan didn't know what to do. Her mistress's demeanor was frightening her, but she drew comfort from the tight embrace, putting her arms around Denna as well.

They stood there for what seemed ages to Kahlan, and then Denna led her to the bed. They both took off their boots, and Denna undid her braid, then they got under the blankets and Denna took Kahlan in her arms again. She feared that Rahl would know. That he would know everything, and would take Kahlan away from her. "Child," she said in a shaky voice.

"Yes, Mama?" Kahlan asked obediently.

Denna shivered and repositioned an arm so Kahlan would have access to the buttons on her leathers. "Undo my top enough to bare my breast."

Kahlan nodded and set to the task, undoing buttons until she could peel the leather back to reveal her mistress's left breast.

Denna gently guided Kahlan's mouth to her nipple, and urged her to suck. She said nothing else. She didn't want to voice her fears aloud, lest they lend weight to reality.

\--

In the morning, after they were bathed and dressed, Denna in her leathers and Kahlan in her freshly laundered Confessor dress, they were summoned to Lord Rahl's chambers.

Denna forced her legs to hold her as she led Kahlan down one hall after another by a chain attached to her Rada'Han. When they reached Lord Rahl's chambers, she rapped once on the door, sharply, and swallowed bile as he called for her to enter. She did, and knew something was wrong immediately upon entering - the five Dragon Corps soldiers from yesterday were stood in a line to one side of the door. One of them moved to close it behind her.

"My Lord?" she asked, tilting her head to one side, keeping a white-knuckled grip on Kahlan's chain.

"Denna," Darken said, steepling his fingers together in front of his chest, looking for all the world like he was a kind, patient man. Until his brows furrowed and his lips turned down, transforming him from docile to menacing in the span of a single heartbeat. "I have received disturbing news that you do not wish to share your new pet."

Her voice nearly failed her. She called steel into herself and spoke confidently, though she felt anything but. "My Lord, her training is not finished, yet. I simply wouldn't want your fine soldiers to be disappointed."

"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed, closing the distance between them in two strides and backhanding Denna fiercely across the cheek.

She spit blood, brought the back of her hand up to wipe her mouth, and narrowed her eyes at him. She said nothing. She knew that anything she could possibly have to say would just enrage him further.

A snap of Darken's fingers and the soldiers sprung into action, two of them grabbing Denna because they knew she wouldn't struggle, and three of them grabbing Kahlan because they knew she would.

"No!" Kahlan screamed, thrashing and kicking and doing her best to incapacitate the soldiers She got in a savage bite to one of their hands, but all that got her was clouted in the jaw, and they still managed to pin her down and chain her to the bed. "What are you doing to her!" she shrieked in terror as the other two soldiers began stripping Denna in the middle of the dark, foreboding room.

Denna allowed them to strip her and chain her up, and shot a fierce glare to Kahlan. "Quiet, Pet!" She did not want Kahlan making it worse on herself.

Kahlan tried to be quiet, but when Darken Rahl leaned down and retrieved Denna's Agiel from the pile of discarded leathers, brandishing it with an evil smirk, and took it to Denna's ribcage, she started up her screaming protests again. "No! Leave her alone! It's my fault!"

"My my," Darken said, his smirk growing as he drove the Agiel into Denna's stomach, enjoying her silent grimace of pain. "You were right, weren't you? She is far from trained."

Kahlan writhed and yanked at her bonds, rattling the chains and shouting insults at Rahl each time he touched her mistress with the Agiel. "You disgusting pig! She hasn't done anything wrong! Does it make you feel like a big man to torture a chained, naked woman?"

"Shut up, Kahlan!" Denna commanded fiercely, then threw her head back and groaned as the Agiel assaulted her inner thighs and moved up between her legs.

Darken finally got a howl out of Denna when he cracked the Agiel across the front of her hips, and he laughed.

Kahlan renewed her struggles, metal clanging in her ears as she tried to rip the chains from the headboard and get to Denna.

She started to cry when Rahl began to beat Denna more severely, on her back, from her neck all the way down, and her mistress was shaking with agony, she could tell. She cried harder when he put the Agiel inside of her mistress, and when his free hand moved to undo his pants, something broke inside her.

Denna's eyes went wide when she heard the unearthly sound suddenly coming from her pet. It was feral, haunting, painful.

Everyone else dropped whatever they were holding and covered their ears.

All watched in amazement as a bolt of black lightning railed through the ceiling and struck the Rada'Han around Kahlan's throat, incinerating it in a flash of darkness.

Kahlan could feel herself losing control, even as she felt more in control than she ever had. A paradox of light and dark, swirling around her, outside and within. The horrible scream still emanating from her, she flexed her fingers, and the shackles at her wrists popped open and fell away.

The room was awash with storms of black and blue lightning, crackling and striking the floor, shaking the palace, knick-knacks and furniture alike crashing to the ground.

Kahlan stood on the bed, her eyes wild and bright, but darker than pitch, and called the underworld up to surround them in an eerie green glow.

She tossed her fist toward the petrified soldiers, loosing a bolt of lightning at each in turn, sending them through the boundary she'd created, into the world of the dead.

In the next second, piercing eyes turned on Rahl. He looked as if he might try running, but she was in front of him before he could blink, her hand around his throat, releasing her Confessor power into him with a concussive burst of air.

Darken Rahl dropped to his knees before her. "Command me, Confessor."

When Kahlan spoke, it was as if her voice came from everywhere and nowhere at once. "UNCHAIN HER."

"Yes, Confessor, of course," Rahl said and stood at once, releasing Denna from her chains.

With a grunt of pain, Denna collapsed to the floor without the support of the restraints holding her up.

Kahlan bent and lifted her mistress into her arms, carrying her to the bed. Stopping at the edge, she turned her head to look at Rahl over her shoulder. "DIE."

"Yes, Conf--ess--or," Rahl choked on the blood suddenly bubbling up from his throat, and he fell forward to the floor, bleeding from his nose, mouth, and ears, convulsing and moaning until, without ceremony, he was still.

The glassy look in the tyrant's eyes told Kahlan what she needed to know - he was dead - and she sank to the bed with Denna, slipping from the Con Dar and into unconsciousness.

\--

When Kahlan woke, and looked around the room, things seemed the same as she'd left them. Her eyes found Denna's, and she blinked, brushing a lock of hair behind her ear to keep it out of her face. "How long was I unconscious?" she asked.

Denna shrugged indifferently. "A few minutes." She turned her face away. "Confess me, please. Get it over with."

"What?" Kahlan sat up sharply. "Confess you? Why would I confess you?"

The Mord-Sith gave a mirthless chuckle. "If you haven't noticed, your Rada'Han is off. Confess me, and you're free."

Kahlan moved to the other side of Denna, to look into her eyes again. "Do you not know what the Con Dar is?" she whispered. At the unchanged expression she received in response, she guessed that Denna did not. "It is an ancient magic called forth in times of great need, to protect one loved by a Confessor."

Denna closed her eyes. They flew open again when the implication of Kahlan's words sank in. "I told you never to love me. You said you could never love me."

"That was before I understood you, Mistress," Kahlan breathed, reaching out to touch Denna's cheek. "I didn't know that what I felt for you was love. But it must be, or the Con Dar would not have come when called. I think you love me, too, Mistress."

"Be quiet," Denna snapped half-heartedly, leaning into the touch, turning to kiss Kahlan's palm. "I love no one. But I will miss you."

"Miss me? Where am I going, Mistress?"

"Why are you still calling me that? I have nothing to hold you here. We are equally matched in strength. Without the Rada'Han, I can do nothing but watch as you leave."

The thought of leaving made Kahlan sick to her stomach. "I'm not leaving," she said resolutely.

Denna didn't dare to believe her. "Don't play with me, Kahlan. I'm not in the mood."

"I'm not leaving!" Kahlan said more insistently, with no room for misunderstanding. "Rada'Han or not, I am yours, Mistress. Forever."

Denna's lip began to quiver as she stared at Kahlan, lost in a sea of feelings. Foreign to a Mord-Sith, and overwhelming. She was starting to believe that her pet really did not plan to leave her. "When you were sick," she managed to say, her voice breaking with emotion, "and there was a chance you were dying, I-- I cried."

"Just say it, Denna," Kahlan demanded, taking her mistress's face in both hands now and leaning down until their lips were a breath apart.

"I don't know what you're--"

"Say it! Say yo--"

"I love you," Denna breathed.

Kahlan kissed her. "I love you, too," she said, just in case there was any ambiguity about that. "Let me tend your wounds, Mistress."

Denna nodded with a whimper as she tried to sit up, and ended up allowing Kahlan to carry her back to their chambers. Her pet laid her on the bed and kissed the back of her head, making her feel like a little girl. But she didn't mind, right then. "There are no balms here," she said after a moment. "Lord Rahl doesn't believe in healing. When he wakes, he will kill us both."

Kahlan blinked. Denna didn't realize. "Mistress, your Master Rahl is dead."

Denna's eyes shot open wide. "What!" she nearly shrieked.

Kahlan shrank back, her face screwed up as her palms started to sweat. "Are you angry, Mistress? I'm sorry, I thought--"

"No," Denna interrupted quickly, pushing to her knees and reaching out for Kahlan, drawing her back over. "I'm astounded. I'm in disbelief, and can scarcely dare to hope it's true, for fear that I let myself believe it and then find out you're wrong. That would be devastating."

"He is dead," Kahlan promised. "I confessed him, and he died to please me."

"I always thought he was immune to confession," Denna said, still hesitant.

"The Con Dar is more powerful than you can imagine," Kahlan whispered. "Confessors were created by wizards more powerful than Darken Rahl, or any other wizard in the New World today. He is dead, Mistress Denna, I swear to you."

Denna clutched her tightly, nearly sobbing with relief that Kahlan would not be taken from her after all. The fact that she was now free from Rahl's clutches was secondary. "Perhaps you should school me on the history of Confessors," she said with a throaty chuckle, sliding her fingers through Kahlan's hair.

A thought occurred to Kahlan, and she jumped from the bed. "We need to burn his body! There have been no banelings lately but that doesn't mean it isn't possible..."

Denna's eyes widened again and she scrambled to her feet beside Kahlan, heading for the door despite how painful it was to move. She grabbed a torch from one of the brackets in the corridor on the way, motioning for Kahlan to do the same.

Kahlan grabbed two. She wanted no room for error.

When they reached Rahl's chambers, both let out a breath that his body was still there. They took the torches to it immediately, and stood unblinking until the last piece of sizzling flesh had turned to ash. Denna spit on the floor, and then blew out her torch, letting it fall from her hand, forgotten. "I want to be away from here."

Kahlan didn't blow out her torches, but set them back in the brackets as they passed through the corridor once again, back to Denna's chambers. "Where do you want to go, Mistress?"

"I don't know. I still can't believe I'm free to do as I please."

"Haven't you always done as you pleased?" Kahlan asked, and then added quickly, "I didn't mean that insolently, Mistress."

"I have done as I pleased with the lives of others," Denna replied. "Never with my own. The concept is quite novel, and I'm afraid I'm at a loss. I only know I want to be away from here, and never return to this forsaken palace."

"And I only know I want to be wherever you are," Kahlan confessed, stepping closer, biting her lip, nervous even though they had exchanged words of love. Now that Denna was free, she might change her mind. Kahlan didn't think she could bear it, but she had to know.

"You don't have a preference of where we go to ground?"

The Confessor sighed with relief, trying not to show she had been concerned in the first place. Love or not, Mord-Sith didn't like weakness. "Well... I suppose I would like to visit Aydindril, and Zedd," she began, but when Denna stiffened she backtracked, tripping over her words. "But I-I-I mean only if-if, I mean that is just a stupid wish, I don't nee--"

Denna realized her unconscious reaction to the wizard's name was distressing her pet, and she forced her body to relax as a hand came up to stroke Kahlan's cheek. "Shhh... we will visit Aydindril," she soothed.

Kahlan's eyes went wide and filled with tears. "You would do that for me, Mistress?"

Denna shrugged indifferently, a gleam in her eye. "Only because I'll need the help of a wizard if I wish you to bear me a child."

Kahlan choked out a laugh, she couldn't help it. "Your wit is unparalleled, Mistress," she offered with a shake of her head. And then more seriously, "if Zedd tries to kill you, please don't hurt him... give me time to explain things to him, please? I know I can make him understand..."

Denna sighed, leaned her forehead against Kahlan's. "I do not think he'll understand, Pet... but I give you my word not to hurt him until after you explain things."

"Mistress," Kahlan whined, turning a masterful pout up at the Mord-Sith.

Denna laughed. "I spoil you rotten," she lamented. "All right, I won't hurt the old fool. And in return, you'll get on your hands and knees for me and beg me to spank you with my new wooden spoon."

Kahlan beamed at getting her way... and then blushed, turning her eyes to the floor. "I... I will, Mistress?"

"Yes," Denna said smoothly. "You will."

"Right now, Mistress?"

"No. When I can properly wield it."

"If there are no balms here, will you let me take you to a healer, Mistress?"

Denna scoffed. "I don't need a healer. And no healer would tend a Mord-Sith, anyway."

"I think you underestimate my sway as the Mother Confessor, Mistress. You don't have a mere beggar for a pet, you know... you have the highest moral authority of the Midlands."

"Is that so..." Denna pretended not to be impressed.

"Let me take you to Kelton, Mistress. Healer Aldin will tend you, and I can call Jason over to see you naked while the healer works, in repayment for humiliating me in front of that boy and letting him strike me."

Denna slapped Kahlan's face and the Confessor whined, regaling her with a pitiful expression that made her roll her eyes. "Oh, spirits!" She threw up her hands in mock indignance. "I told you I spoil you rotten. Will it really make you happy, to do all of that?"

"Just the healer part, Mistress," Kahlan said softly, rubbing her stinging cheek. "I don't want Jason to see you naked."

"Feeling a bit possessive of your mistress, are you?" One eyebrow lifted curiously.

Kahlan blushed again, but nodded in honesty. "A bit possessive, and a bit jealous at the thought of anyone else seeing you naked, besides Healer Aldin."

\--

When they reached Kelton, and walked their horse to the stables, Jason came out to meet them with an excited grin. "Evenin', Mother Confessor, Mord-Sith." He had never learned Denna's name.

"Mistress Denna," Denna told him, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

Two young girls came running out of the house, and the littlest one marched right up to Denna and stomped on her foot, then kicked her in the shin. "You killed our Pa!"

"Kiersten!" the older one scolded, pulling her out of the way and putting her arms around a stunned Denna. "She doesn't understand," she explained quickly into Denna's ear. "Thank you, so much..." When she pulled back, her eyes were filled with tears.

Denna did not know how to react to a child hugging her, or thanking her, in such a heartfelt manner. With Jason, it had been easy, he'd made it easy... but this was a little girl. Maybe ten years old at the most.

Jason seemed to sense her discomfort, and intervened. "Abigail, get Kiersten back in the house and get washed up for supper, all right?"

Abigail frowned, obviously wanting to spend more time with their heroine, but sighed and trudged off. "All right, fine," she huffed, taking Kiersten's hand and leading her back into the house.

Jason snickered and turned back to the ladies. "Y'all will join us for supper, right?"

"Uh, no," Denna blurted out, not wanting to spend any more time around two small girls than she absolutely had to. "We have to go next door."

His face twisted with concern. "Why? What's wrong? Are y'sick again, Mother Confessor?" he asked Kahlan.

Denna shot her a look that said 'don't you dare tell this boy that I need healing'.

Kahlan's mouth opened, then shut, then opened again as she said, "that's between my mistress and myself."

Jason frowned, looked to Denna. "See, I told ya she was snooty."

"I'm not snooty!" Kahlan nearly shouted. She hated that anyone would think that of her.

"Mind your manners, both of you," Denna scolded. "Boy, go on and feed your sisters."

He sighed. "Yes Ma'am. Soon as I see to your horse."

Denna nodded and took Kahlan's arm as they made their way to the healer's.

\--

Denna scowled menacingly as she was asked to remove her leathers. Kahlan gently reminded her that it was necessary in order to tend her wounds.

"And," the Confessor whispered in the Mord-Sith's ear, "he's already seen your ass, Mistress."

Denna scowled at Kahlan now, too, but removed her boots, and then her leathers, climbing face-down on one of the empty cots.

Healer Aldin grimaced. "Well, those I can fix without magic," he offered, despite the horrific nature of the wounds. They were much easier to heal than the lash of a snake vine. "Gamlin, bring me some baleroot and some aum leaves, and a jar of cream."

"Right away, Sir," Gamlin answered, scurrying into the back, emerging a few moments later with the requested items.

The healer looked to Kahlan, and she got the message, taking the herbs and cream from his apprentice with a smile of thanks to the younger man. "Which one goes with the cream?" she asked Aldin.

"The aum leaves," the healer replied as Gamlin came back out with a basin of water, some rags, and a mortar and pestle.

"Could I get a bowl, please?" Kahlan asked him, and he nodded vigorously and reverently, hurrying off again and coming back almost immediately with a wooden bowl. "Thank you," she said as she took it.

Denna just grumbled. "Get on with it..."

Kahlan resisted the urge to smack her bottom. Instead she busied herself mixing the aum leaves with some of the cream.

The healer peered into the bowl as he crushed the baleroot in the mortar and stirred in some water to make a paste. "That's good," he told the Mother Confessor with a nod. "After I apply the paste, you rub in the aum cream."

"What is aum cream?" Denna asked suspiciously.

"It soothes the sting," the healer informed her, beginning to apply the baleroot paste. "This is to ward off infection."

"I don't need anything for the sting," Denna snapped.

"I suppose that is between you and your slave," Healer Aldin conceded.

Denna shot up from the cot, inadvertently affording the old man quite a view, and reached for the Agiel that was not only not at her hip, but was no longer working, anyway. Old habits died hard, after all. She growled at him instead. "She is my mate."

The healer closed his eyes, out of respect for the Mother Confessor. "Between you and your mate, then," he amended, and waited until he heard her lay back down before opening his eyes and continuing with the baleroot.

Kahlan beamed, though she tried not to be obvious about it. Denna had called her 'mate', and in front of other people, no less. She leaned over to whisper something in Denna's ear that made her mistress stiffen, eyes wide.

"I'll take the aum cream," Denna changed her mind instantly.

The healer raised an eyebrow. Kahlan smirked.

Outside the window, Jason crept away before he got caught sneaking a peek at the Mord-Sith naked.

\--

As soon as the aum cream was rubbed in, Denna's pain was gone almost completely. She marveled at the fact, and her wounds didn't even hurt when she climbed back into her leathers. "That is amazing," she whispered to Kahlan. "How does it do that?"

"I have no idea," Kahlan shrugged. "But I'm glad it does."

"Yes," Denna smirked. "And now you owe me a spar."

"Winner gets to do whatever she wants with the loser..."

"I win, automatically, because I'm the mistress," Denna purred teasingly, pulling Kahlan close and pressing their bodies together, while the healer and his apprentice looked away.

"That wasn't part of the deal," Kahlan whispered, nipping her mistress's earlobe.

"No fun," Denna sighed. "How will we decide the winner?"

"Whichever of us gets the other to say 'stop' is the winner."

"And there are no rules?"

"No rules except I can't confess you to win, of course."

"What's in it for me, again? I can do whatever I want with you, whenever I want, anyway..."

Kahlan pouted at her. "Now who's taking the fun out of it, Mistress?"

Denna couldn't help laughing. She took Kahlan's face in her hands and kissed the tip of her nose. "How did I raise such a brat?"

Kahlan whined.

Denna laughed harder and popped her on the backside, ushering her toward the door. "Thanks," she called over her shoulder to the healer, and stopped in her tracks just outside, her face losing what little color it had. "I..."

Kahlan stopped, sensing Denna's distress, and turned to face her with an affectionate smile. "It's okay, Mistress. You should say thank-you when someone helps you."

"But I..." Denna stood there feeling lost, until Kahlan's hands found hers and squeezed, and she remembered how good it felt to love someone. To be human. To be a woman, not just a Mord-Sith. "Well in that case, thank you," she said quietly, pulling her hands free to put them around the Confessor. "I don't even know how to express the depths of my gratitude... for everything you have brought into my life."

Kahlan smiled, rubbed her hands up and down Denna's back. She knew how hard those things were for her mistress to say, and she knew Denna would not want to get into a back-and-forth outpouring of emotion, so she bit her lip coyly and said, "you could let me win the spar."

Denna was silent for a split-second, and then laughed. "Not a chance." Her pet always knew the perfect thing to say to make her feel good.

\--

Neither of them held back. They bruised and bloodied each other wherever they could, using fingernails and fists and boots, knees and elbows, even their heads.

Without her Agiel, Denna found it hard to keep up. And she certainly never gained a clear advantage over Kahlan. She wasn't weak, by any means, but Kahlan was stronger. Currently, her pet had her pinned to the ground and was sitting on her hips, hands closed tightly around her wrists, holding them on either side of her head. She grunted with the effort of trying to throw the Confessor off of her, but it was useless, pinned as she was, so she lifted a knee into Kahlan's upper back, knocking her off balance.

It wasn't enough. Kahlan was able to right herself without letting Denna up. She drove an elbow into her mistress's ribs, over and over until Denna gasped for breath and finally asked her to stop.

"Yes!" she shouted in triumph, ceasing the aggression as soon as the word passed her mistress's lips, and just sitting atop her, grinning. Until she noticed Denna's mood, and her grin faded. "Mistress?"

"Get off me," Denna snapped.

Kahlan scrambled to comply, going to her knees beside Denna instead, with her head bowed. "I'm sorry, Mistress," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears. "I displeased you?"

"Yes," Denna said sourly, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth and struggling to her feet, doubled over in pain from the treatment to her ribs, and staggered a few feet away, bracing herself against a tree.

Kahlan didn't know what to do. "Mistress, I'm sorry," she said again, pleadingly.

"Shut up!" Denna thundered, sliding down and turning to sit with her back against the tree. She covered her face with her hands and blew out a shuddering breath, shaking her head and then reaching out for Kahlan. "Spirits, I'm sorry," she whispered. "Come here."

Kahlan crawled over and nearly cried with relief to be pulled into Denna's arms. "I'm sorry, Mistress."

"Stop saying that," Denna soothed her, stroking her hair.

"I thought you were angry with me," Kahlan said.

"I'm angry with myself," Denna admitted. "I should be able to beat you in a fight. But without my Agiel, I can't. That makes me feel ineffectual, and weak, and useless. And--" she choked a bit on the words, "how am I supposed to protect you?"

"Not by yelling at me and pushing me away," Kahlan said, her voice soft and hesitant, but determined.

"No, not by doing that," Denna agreed, feeling slightly ashamed of herself. "But how?"

"I can protect you, too, Mistress," Kahlan offered, snuggling closer, needing to feel their connection. "That's part of the responsibilities of a... mate," she added carefully. "They protect each other."

"You are the best mate anyone could ask for," Denna said, letting her eyes drift closed.

Typically, at this point in a conversation, Kahlan would say something funny; steer them away from talking too much about feelings. This time, she let things flow as they would. "Thank you, Mistress," she whispered. "Being thought of as your mate makes me happy."

"I want you to be happy," Denna smiled, taking a deep breath of the scent of Kahlan's hair. "You have given me my life back; made me feel what it is to truly be a woman. There are moments when the feeling slips away from me, and I forget that I am more than a Mord-Sith. In those moments, please be patient, and forgive me when they're through?"

"Of course," Kahlan breathed. "Of course, Mistress. Always."

There were many more times when Denna forgot herself, but she was always quick to remember... and Kahlan was always patient, always forgiving, and quick to use the transgressions as tiny little guilt trips to get things she wanted. Denna could always see right through her, but... she never minded. Much.


End file.
